Imagine
by Hidge
Summary: AU. Sequel to What If?, set 1 year afterwards and 2 years before the start of the show. A case in the Midwest reunites the team that put a stop to a Washington D.C. terrorist cell. But is one of them more involved in the case than they'd like? Please R&R!
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: So here's the sequel to What If?. Its set 1 year after What If?. This idea came to life thanks to all of those reviewers who requested a sequel. :) Thanks to my lovely beta! :) **

**Chapter 1 – Breaking Routine**

Hotch stirred from a peaceful sleep in his comfortable bed as he heard the familiar ringing of his cell phone. He fetched it off of the bedside table and answered gruffly, "Hotchner."

"Hotch, its Gideon, we have a case," he told him vaguely.

"Bad?"

Gideon scoffed, "Its not any better, that's for sure. At the office as soon as possible," he stated returning to the purpose of his call.

Hotch nodded to himself before he pressed the 'Off' button on his phone. He rubbed his sleepy eyes before he gathered up the energy to hop out of bed. He looked at his alarm clock for the first time and saw that it was 4:20 A.M.; it was going to be an early morning for the BAU team.

He walked around the front of the bed and into the walk-in closet. He picked up his ready bag from its usual spot on the floor and laid it on the blue carpet next to the bed. He went about his activities as quietly as possible, not wanting to wake his sleeping wife. He entered the bathroom off of the master bedroom and splashed his face with cold water and brushed his teeth. He dressed in a light blue dress shirt, dark blue tie, and black suit.

He was just retrieving his firearm from their safe when his wife awoke. "Aaron, what are you doing?" Haley mumbled quietly.

"We have a case," he answered regretfully.

"How long are you going to be gone?" She sighed.

"I don't know yet," he answered as he gathered up his FBI identification from the bedside table drawer. "But I'll call you before we get on the plane, okay?"

She nodded sadly; she was so used to being left alone. "Okay, I love you."

He smiled before he leaned down and kissed her softly on the lips. "Love you too."

--------------------

Hotch entered the empty, BAU bullpen and bypassed the office he had received after being promoted to Senior SSA, or second in command to the Unit Chief, on his way to the conference room. He took a seat at the round table beside Gideon, who was wearing a casual outfit, as usual, and surveyed the other occupants of the room.

Reid was sitting on Gideon's other side. The young man tucked a strand of his rather long hair behind his ear as he yawned. He fiddled with the straps on his messenger bag that was in his lap as he waited for the case briefing. He, like Hotch, had received a phone call around 20 after four, and had needed a very large cup of coffee to wake himself up. He had thrown on a brown, short sleeved dress shirt, tan tie, and beige corduroy pants. It was summer in D.C., and he hadn't been in the mood to put on a sweater vest.

Also sitting at the table was Special Agent Gary Burke, who was approaching the one year mark with the team. He was an intelligent, former NYPD officer in his early thirties. He had fit in relatively well from the beginning and was now another important piece of the BAU puzzle. He had taken a page out of Hotch's book this morning; he was wearing a black suit and tie, and a charcoal dress shirt.

The team's liaison entered the room balancing a large stack of files. JJ now had almost six months of FBI experience under her belt, and all of it with the BAU. She currently occupied the small office down the hallway from the elevator that was reserved for the media and police department liaison of the BAU's most successful unit. With her press experience in the country's fastest city, she had easily adjusted to her new job. She handled witnesses and victims with compassion, hostile police officers with respect, and kept the media at bay with her poised attitude and winning smile.

When JJ had finally managed to safely lay all of her files on the table, Hotch said, "So we have a case?"

She nodded as she passed out the case files before picking the remote up off of the table and turning on the television. It displayed the images of four young, pretty women. "This is Abigail Foster, Katrina Miller, Courtney Piercey, and Leona Murphy. All four are between the ages of 21 and 25, similar physical description, and residents of the Chicago area." Reid was scribbling notes on his notepad as JJ spoke. "Courtney Piercey and Leona Murphy went missing within three days of each other two months ago and are still missing. Abigail Foster and Katrina Miller also went missing within three days of each other, but it was three months ago. Their bodies were discovered two days ago, Foster's by a hiker in the woods just outside of Springfield, Illinois and Miller's was found on a farm in northern Missouri. They had similar signs of torture and the same cause of death, along with a distinctive drawing on their right hip. Local agents are working the signature angle," she added. "Also, they were both determined to have only been dead for 36 hours."

Burke's eyes widened. "He kept them for three months."

"He crossed state lines," Hotch said as he focused on the geographic details.

JJ nodded. "Exactly, which is why I was contacted by both the Chicago, St. Louis, and Springfield field offices, it's a federal case and it's ours if we want it."

"We do," Gideon answered simply.

JJ nodded again as she took her cell phone out of her pocket. "Okay I'll call and let them know that we're on our way."

JJ left the room, leaving the four male agents to ponder the details of the case. "Signs of sexual assault," Reid stated as he scanned the medical examiner's report.

"Most likely for all three months," Burke added honestly.

Gideon nodded to himself. "Possible sexual sadist," he proposed.

"Well neither of us is a sex crimes expert," Burke chuckled as he twirled a pen between his fingers.

Reid raised his head and looked at his colleague. "No, but I know one." Burke looked at him curiously but he turned to Gideon and Hotch instead. "I could call Elle." His mentor gave him a questioning look and he responded immediately, "We kept in touch."

"Who's Elle?" Burke asked confused.

"She's an agent at the Seattle field office and probably the best sex crimes specialist in the country," Gideon explained. He and Hotch exchanged a conversation in glances before he answered Reid. "Yeah, give her a call." The young genius gathered the files in front of him and put them in his messenger bag before he got up out of his chair and left the conference room.

"Airstrip in 20," Gideon announced as he got to his feet and began to move in the direction of JJ's office.

Hotch walked into his office to gather his things and call his wife while Burke joined Reid in the bullpen. "Airstrip in 20," he repeated Gideon's words.

Reid nodded in his direction but remained focused on his phone conversation. He finally closed his phone shut and put it back in his pocket. "I'm going to go see Garcia," he spoke more to himself than to Burke.

He walked to the perky technical analyst's office and politely knocked on the doorframe before entering. She spun around in her chair and smiled at him. "Are you as tired as I am?" She asked laughing. She did not give him a chance to answer before she asked another question. "What can I help you with sunshine?"

Garcia had settled into her new, and technically first, job almost effortlessly. There was no firewall that she couldn't sneak past and no piece of information that she couldn't mystically retrieve. In just one year, she had written several programs that have proven to be beneficial to all technical analysts in the FBI. She had verified her worth to sceptical supervisors and had a personality that made the blood and gore that they saw on a daily basis tolerable. Her office was bright, colourful, and fun, and it was always a pleasure to pay her a visit.

"We have a new case…" he began but she cut him off.

"Yeah, I know, I did get the glorious wakeup call. Where?"

"The Midwest," he answered nondescriptly since he did not know if they would set up camp in Illinois or Missouri.

"Okay so what can I do to assist you crime fighters?" She asked excitedly as she spun back around to face her computers.

"We're taking off in 20 minutes so can you get me everything you can about these girls?" He asked as he placed a file folder on her desk. "I took out all the crime scene photos," he added smiling timidly.

"Aww you sweetheart," she replied as she looked up at him and smiled brightly.

He laughed lightly, "Okay we'll make contact when we're in the air."

"Sure beautiful!" She yelled after him as he left her office.

Reid walked back into the bullpen and saw that Burke had just pulled his ready bag out from under his desk. He followed his lead and got his things ready as well. Shortly afterwards, Hotch came out of his office with his ready bag in hand, followed by Gideon, and JJ came from the other direction. The five agents walked towards the elevator, they were off once again.

**A/N: I'm going to try to update every two days or so but I am busy. Give me feedback, I always appreciate all the opinions and suggestions!! :) And especially from those who requested the sequel, is this what you had in mind? :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Thanks to everyone who has reviewed and alerted! :) It makes me smile and it makes a sequel worth all the effort. :)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds or any of its characters.**

**Chapter 2 – Reunited**

"We can assume that he still has Courtney Piercey and Leona Murphy," Gideon stated solemnly.

The five of them were gathered around the table at the back of the plane with either notepads or case files in their hands. Reid and Burke were actually sat at the table while JJ and Hotch were sitting on the couch across from it and Gideon was comfortable in a spinning chair that was now turned towards them.

Reid nodded in agreement. "Garcia is getting everything that she can on the victims right now."

"Okay, who are we dealing with, JJ?" Gideon asked turning to the blonde.

"I have been talking to the Violent Crimes Unit at the Springfield field office but Chicago is sending down two agents and so is St. Louis. They're creating a task force in order to share information," she explained.

"He's keeping them for a ridiculous amount of time," Burke stated randomly. "Have we seen anything like this before?"

"Gary Heidnik kept women imprisoned in his basement," Reid answered promptly. "He kidnapped prostitute Josefine Rivera on Thanksgiving in 1986 and held her for four months."

"He kept his victims alive by feeding them mostly dog food and water," Hotch added. "They wore only shirts, so Heidnik raped them frequently. They were tortured regularly but the worst came when Heidnik became paranoid that they were plotting against him and stabbed his captives in the ears with a screwdriver."

Burke shuffled through the crime scene photos. "These look like cigarette burns," he said referring to the marks on the bodies of the victims. "And there are ligature marks on the wrists and ankles, they were tied up."

"Cause of death is strangulation," Hotch stated.

"Don't you guys say that that's a very intimate way to kill someone?" JJ inquired, in search of knowledge. She had already learned so much in her six months of work with the BAU.

The Unit Chief nodded. "What's the significance of the drawing of the star on their right hip?" He questioned.

"Stars are symbols for a variety of things in many different cultures," Reid answered.

"We have to figure out what it means to him," Gideon said quietly.

"But it is his signature right?" JJ asked curiously.

Hotch nodded, "Most likely. He kept them for three months so he's controlled and organized."

"There's no sign of track marks, so he didn't drug them, which means he's physically strong," Burke added.

Gideon thought over the sexual component of the case before turning to Reid. "Were you talking to Elle?"

The young genius nodded. "She's getting on the next available flight."

Their conversation was interrupted by Garcia appearing on the laptop computer screen in front of Burke. "Hey crime fighters! I have information on our two victims and our two missing girls."

"Go ahead, Garcia," JJ urged.

"Okay, well, as you guys know, all are between 21 and 25; they are Caucasian, tall and thin with long, dark hair, and brown eyes. They all live in Chicago but in different neighbourhoods throughout the city so there's no connection there. But Piercey and Foster were each last seen at, get this, Wrigley Field, and Murphy and Miller were each last seen at the public city library."

Burke's eyebrows furrowed together in confusion. "So each time he kidnaps, he stakes out the Cubs game and a library?"

"That's what it looks like."

"Well he's staying in public where there are crowds so he's probably using a ruse," Hotch proposed.

"Oh, and I got you guys one more connection!" Garcia exclaimed, and JJ and Reid immediately smiled, the blonde was obviously hyped up on caffeine. "All four girls are students at the University of Chicago, and Foster and Miller, our victims and first girls kidnapped, had a class together."

The five agents exchanged looks before Reid politely said, "Thanks Garcia."

"No problem baby face, Garcia out." And with that, the screen went black again.

"The University of Chicago is consistently in the top fifteen list of best American universities," Reid stated matter-of-factly as this tidbit of information provided more insight into victimology.

"These girls are intelligent and attractive; he is definitely using a perfected ruse and is most likely attractive himself," Hotch interjected.

"Because these girls wouldn't go off with an ugly guy," JJ stated uneasily.

Gideon nodded, "Exactly."

Burke glanced out the window and said, "Looks like we're getting close."

Gideon turned towards the window and agreed with the younger man. "Let's get a little rest before we land."

--------------------

When their plane landed, they headed straight to the Springfield field office. They met with the Springfield agents and the two agents from St. Louis. The agents from Chicago would be joining them tomorrow when they headed to the crime scenes. They had exchanged information and proposed some early ideas and theories but everything was still very rough. Garcia was still digging into the lives of the two victims and the two missing girls to see if there are any other connections and JJ was handling the media in three large cities.

They had decided to call it a day at ten o'clock P.M, so the BAU checked into their hotel and retreated to their rooms to begin forming individual ideas. As had been the routine for the past six months, Hotch and Gideon had separate rooms, Reid and Burke were roommates, and JJ being the lone female got a single room.

Reid placed his suitcase on his bed, grabbed his key card and messenger bag, and left the room in search of a vending machine. He found one in the main lobby and put a bag of chips and a bottle of soda in his bag. He was about to turn and go back to his room when he caught sight of a familiar face at the front desk.

"Can you give me a break? I can't remember the last time that I slept!" The brunette begged the man at the desk. The man shook his head so she pulled her FBI badge out of her pocket and laid it on the desk. "Just let me check in." After seeing her credentials, he turned to his computer and began to search for a room for her.

Reid smiled excitedly as he watched her sigh heavily and lean against the desk. She was just breathtakingly gorgeous. Her long, dark hair was down and she was wearing a pair of blue jeans, a white tank top, and over it a black, zip up, hooded sweater. She had a small duffle bag and a backpack with her.

She gave the man at the desk an annoyed smile as he finally handed her a key card. "Thank you." She put her key card and badge in her pocket and picked up her bags.

"Do you need any help with that?" He asked happily as he saw that she had her head down.

Elle raised her head as she thought that she recognized the male voice. She laughed when she saw just who was in front of her. "Reid!"

He pulled her in for a tight hug. "So happy to see you," he whispered before he kissed her on the cheek.

"I'm happy to see you too," she replied smiling.

He pulled back and took her bags off of her hands. "Let me walk you to your room. Which number?"

"210," she answered as she began to walk alongside of him towards the elevators.

"I'm in 162," he replied.

When they reached her room, she opened the door with her key card and he stepped inside, still carrying her bags. He laid them on the bed. "When you get settled, why don't you come down and we can brief you on the case?"

She nodded and laughed as she watched him walk towards the door. "What, you're not going to kiss me?"

He quickly spun around and ran back towards her. He wrapped his arms around her waist and leaned down for a very intense kiss. "I wasn't sure if you wanted me to with the team being in the hotel and everything," he explained breathlessly.

Reid hadn't exactly been truthful; he and Elle had gotten a lot closer than simply keeping in touch. Three weeks after she had left Washington D.C., she had shown up at his apartment out of the blue and he couldn't have been happier. After that, their visits had gotten more and more frequent and although they hadn't verbally decided that they were going to enter a long distance relationship, it had somehow ended up that way. They had an unbelievable amount of fun with each other and there was a comfort level that neither of them had ever found before. Simply, they were always on each others minds.

His favourite time they had been together was when he had surprised her after she had had a bad day at work.

"_Hello, how was your day?" Reid asked pleasantly._

_Elle sighed contentedly on the other end of the phone. "Oh Reid, I'm so happy that you called."_

_He smiled to himself. "Really?"_

"_Mmm hmm, I had a really tiring day. I wish that you were here," she added._

"_Yeah, why?"_

"_Because I want one of your massages," she laughed._

_He smirked uncontrollably to himself. "How else could I make your day better?"_

_She giggled, "Are you trying to get me going over the phone, doctor?" She asked playfully._

"_Not exactly," he laughed lightly._

_She sighed in annoyance when she heard a knock on her apartment door. "Oh, hold on a sec, someone is at my door." _

_She reluctantly got up off of her couch, taking her cordless phone with her, and walked to her door. She pulled the door open and stared in awe at her guest. Reid was standing in front of her wearing a pair of black dress pants and a white dress shirt, black tie, and burgundy sweater vest under his brown, suede jacket and favourite, purple scarf. His hair was slicked back and he had a bright smile on his face. She hadn't seen him in almost three months so she was absolutely thrilled. He had been holding his cell phone between his ear and shoulder because his hands were full. A backpack was over his shoulder, he carried a bag of takeout food in one hand, flowers in the other, and a white, rectangular box under one arm. "You may be the most incredible guy on the face of the planet," she stated before she wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him. She took his cell phone and closed it for him before placing it in his coat pocket. "When did you get here?"_

"_This morning," he answered simply before leaning in to kiss her. "I've been waiting two months and 22 days to do that," he smiled._

_She smiled brightly before she gestured for them to move into her apartment. "You got me flowers," she stated happily as she closed the door behind them._

_He nodded, "Yup, and I got you takeout from your favourite place," he announced as he placed the bag of takeout on her kitchen counter. "And…"_

_She smiled like a schoolgirl as she walked towards him. "You got me a present."_

_He also laid the white box down on the counter. "Yeah, it's something that we talked about not that long ago when you asked me what my ultimate fantasy was." She smirked uncontrollably as she lifted the cover off of the box to reveal red, lace lingerie. "Everyone at the store was looking at me really weird…," he started embarrassed but she cut him off by placing a finger over his lips._

_She picked up the box and grabbed him by the tie. She began pulling him towards her bedroom. "Come on, I have to share my present with you." _

She brought him out of his memory by kissing him. "Are we being secretive?" She smirked.

"Umm…I guess," he answered awkwardly as he ran a hand through her hair. "Well I haven't told anybody that we've been seeing each other." He quickly changed the topic. "You just got off a plane, you should eat and rest and shower. How about instead of the briefing, I'll just give you the case file?" He proposed as he pulled the case file out of his bag. "I think that everyone has turned in anyway so we'll do the team briefing over breakfast."

"Are you going to stay with me?" She asked with a coy smile as she ran her hands over his chest.

He bit down on his bottom lip. "I'm in a room with another agent."

"Oh, that's too bad; you know how I hate to shower alone." She looked him up and down; she was of the opinion that he got cuter every time she saw him. She wanted to rip his brown dress shirt and beige cords off, leaving him standing in front of her in his tan tie and her best guess was plaid boxers.

He let out a low groan. "I'll stay to work but we…can't…in the hotel…"

"Where's my bad boy?" She asked with a mischievous grin.

He laughed lightly and then smirked as he stood up straight. "I can't stay long."

She smiled triumphantly as she sat down on the edge of the bed and pulled him down beside her. "It'll be like when we made out in the safe house."

He placed a hand on the side of her face as he leaned in for a kiss. "Okay." He fell back onto the bed and she climbed on top of him.

**A/N: Well I hope that this chapter answered some of your questions regarding what has happened since What If?. More reveals to come!!! Review please! :)**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Thanks to everyone who has reviewed, alerted, and favourited! :)**

**Disclaimer: Same as always.**

**Chapter 3 – Getting Hot Under the Collar**

Elle met the BAU for breakfast the next morning in the dining room. She gave them all a pleasant smile before she gently hugged JJ and shook hands with Gideon and Hotch, and even Reid, just to keep up appearances. "Nice to see you guys again."

"You too," Hotch said politely before turning towards Gideon and gesturing towards Burke.

"This is our other BAU agent, Gary Burke," Gideon introduced. "Burke this is Agent Elle Greenaway."

"Nice to meet you," Elle smiled as she shook the handsome man's hand.

He smiled warmly and reciprocated her greeting. "Nice to meet you too, Agent Greenaway." Reid did not miss the way that his partner's eyes lingered on his secret girlfriend.

"When did you get here?" JJ asked curiously. She was excited to see her former roommate again. They had actually gotten together once in the past year. It was right before she went to the FBI Academy. Elle had arrived in New York City to visit some of her family and she had looked her up and the two women had gone out to dinner.

"Late last night," Elle sighed. "I was tired so I decided to check in, go to bed, and find you guys in the morning."

"Okay," Gideon spoke, "Let's have some breakfast and then head to the Springfield field office. The Chicago agents will be down today."

--------------------

The BAU and the sex crimes expert walked into the Violent Crimes Unit bullpen on the third floor of the Springfield field office. Once they reached the circle of agents in the center of the bullpen, more introductions needed to be made.

Gideon took a breath before be named all of the people. "Agents Newman, Hicks, and Colburn of Springfield violent crimes and Clark and Morris of St. Louis violent crimes."

SSA Selena Newman was a blonde, uptight woman in her early forties who was the supervisor of Michael Hicks and Chase Colburn, two young rookies who were still enthusiastic and joyful about their job. Agents Barrett Clark and Larry Morris were also young but were much more stoic and weathered.

"And this is Agent Elle Greenaway, violent crimes in Seattle," Gideon finished.

After a round of handshakes, Hotch asked, "Are the Chicago agents here yet?"

"They just called and said that they were about five minutes away from the field office," Newman answered. "Awe, here they are now," she said with a small smile.

Everyone turned to see the two agents enter the bullpen. JJ chuckled pleasantly while Elle and Reid smiled brightly. The two people walking towards them were none other than Emily Prentiss and Derek Morgan. Morgan gave JJ and Elle hugs, Reid a playful pat on the back, and Hotch and Gideon firm handshakes. Emily hugged the women, smiled warmly at Reid, and remained utterly professional with the two senior agents.

Hotch immediately felt his body tense upon seeing the young, dark haired woman, although he did his best to conceal it. He couldn't help but think about the last time that they saw each other, approximately six months ago. He was giving a seminar at the Chicago police department headquarters and had bumped into her while eating at a popular local restaurant. They had pleasantly chatted and he had invited her back to his hotel room for a drink.

"_It was nice to see you again," Emily stated as she placed her empty glass on the table and got up out of her seat. She moved towards the door of his hotel room as she said, "Maybe we'll run into each other again sometime."_

_Hotch followed her to the door and before she had a chance to place her hand on the knob, he gently grasped her elbow and pulled her into him. His lips roughly met hers but she didn't push him away._

_When he ended the kiss, he observed the look of utter bewilderment on her face. She took a step backwards as she said awkwardly, "I should really go now."_

_He grabbed her by the waist and pulled her in again. "No you shouldn't," he replied huskily._

_He kissed her again but this time she did push him away. "No," she shook her head furiously. "I'm not going to be the other woman."_

_He moved closer towards her and all of a sudden she was trapped between him and the wall. His hands found her hips and he looked at her with his dark eyes that were almost black now because of the situation. "Haley and I aren't going to work," he explained bluntly._

"_I'm sorry," she said sincerely._

"_Don't be," as he spoke he began to pull on the zipper of her jeans. "Stay with me," he whispered as his lips began to create a path from her earlobe to her collarbone._

_She felt her whole body flush and begin to quiver and she knew that she was slowly surrendering. "Okay," she answered as her fingers slid through his short, black hair._

_He leaned in and kissed her intensely before stepping backwards toward the bed and taking her with him. _

He had missed the final introductions and Gideon's voice brought him out of his memory. "Okay, now that everyone knows everyone, let's get to work."

Morgan and Emily shared every single piece of information that they had uncovered about the victims and the disappearances, the BAU discussed the preliminary profile, and Elle brought the significance of the sexual element to the table.

"The sexual assault shows that he is an anger-excitation rapist," the brunette stated, she had gone over the files with Reid last night but she read them over again this morning during breakfast.

"Sexual sadist," Hotch stated simply.

"How do you know that?" Agent Colburn asked confused.

"These victims had to endure prolonged periods of torture and mutilation before death, all for the purpose of inflicting pain and terror in order to give him sexual gratification," Burke answered. Burke spoke so intellectually while he was talking to other law enforcement agencies that sometimes he was thought of as a genius as well.

"So what does this mean? What are we looking for?" Morris asked excitedly.

"As shown through how he chooses his victims, he is very particular. When he chooses his target, he often approaches, seduces, and charms the victim. He maintains the ruse until he can isolate the victim from safety," Gideon explained nonchalantly. "This unsub has highly specialized and elaborate fantasies focused on his need to express power and control."

"There is evidence of sexual assault, both pre and post-mortem," Elle added.

"Very common for sexual sadists," Hotch replied. "The victims were fully dressed in the clothes that they went missing in, except that they were missing their underwear; this is most likely his souvenir."

"The sexual sadist maintains a murder kit of sorts," Reid began while animatedly talking with his hands. "It consists of a murder weapon, in this case a thin ligature, restraints, and his torture instruments. He brings this kit with him to the crime scene and carefully packs it up and takes it away afterwards for safekeeping. The unsub is highly alert to leaving behind forensic evidence, which is why we have none, and he most certainly moves the body from the murder scene. We found two dumpsites."

"He is committing his offences and dumping the bodies away from his residence and place of work. He may have, however, already injected himself into the investigation or he plans to."

"Why would he do that?" Agent Hicks asked Gideon.

"Because," the experienced profiler began to answer, "he may be getting a thrill from it or he simply wants to see how much the police knows."

Hotch began the actual profile after receiving a nod from his older colleague. "He is a white, mature, physically attractive, bright, and seemingly social individual between the ages of 30 and 45. He appears to be law-abiding and conventional."

"He is employed, either in a position requiring minimal supervision, or self-employed, and don't be surprised if he is married with children," Burke added.

"He is compulsively organized and has a post-secondary education," Reid spoke, entirely comfortable as a profiler.

"In the simplest terms, he lives a double life; he carefully separates his conventional life from his fantasy-driven one. He has a private space where he keeps his murder kit, souvenirs, probably a basement, attic, closet, or garage."

"Oh, one last thing!" Reid spoke up once Gideon was finished. "He is a consumer of sadistic pornographic literature and imagery."

--------------------

Morgan and Emily returned to the hotel with Elle and the BAU when darkness fell. They checked in and ended up with rooms in the same hallway as the BAU.

"How did I get stuck on a different floor?" Elle asked laughing.

"Maybe you were annoying the person at the front desk," Morgan teased. He and Emily walked with the BAU while Elle took the stairs up to the second floor.

The two agents belonging to the Chicago field office settled into their rooms. Emily was just about to change into her pyjamas when a knock came upon her door. She pulled it open to see Hotch standing in the doorway. "Hey," she greeted him smiling.

He looked at her curiously; she was acting like nothing ever happened between them. "Can I come in?" He asked respectfully.

She pulled the door wide open and stepped to the side. "Yeah sure."

Once he was inside her room and he heard her close the door behind him, he asked, "What's going on?"

"What do you mean?"

"You're acting like nothing happened," he replied.

She scoffed, "Well I assumed that's what you wanted when I never heard from you after. I kind of accepted that I was the one night stand you never had."

"That certainly was not my intention," he told her honestly. "When I got back from Chicago, Haley and I…sort of worked through what it was that we were going through." He let out a heavy sigh he knew that he was not giving her the explanation that she deserved.

"I think that you just needed to get me out of your system," she said boldly.

Her statement stunned him but, on some level, it was true. He left her room and returned to his own without another word.

Meanwhile……

Burke looked at Reid in confusion when they both heard a knock at the door. Reid hopped up off of his bed and answered it. "Oh, hi Elle," he said, slightly flustered.

"Hi," she replied smiling brightly. He let her into the hotel room and she instantly smiled at Burke. "Hi."

"Hey," he said hesitantly. The brunette and Reid were obviously a lot closer than he initially thought; now he wondered just how close.

Both men were checking her out as she walked across the room. She was wearing bright blue pyjama pants, a black tank top, and flip-flops, and her long hair was still down. She sat down on the edge of Reid's bed and smiled up at her boyfriend. "I wanted to talk to you about the hip thing."

"The what thing?" He asked blushing.

She laughed, "The drawing of the star on all of the victims' hips."

"Oh," he turned an even deeper crimson when he realized that he had misunderstood her.

"Yeah, what's the significance behind that?"

"We don't know yet," Burke answered for the very embarrassed genius.

"Any theories?" She asked inquisitively.

Reid shook his head. "The star is such a common symbol." Elle leaned back on her elbows and was fully aware that he had a very good view of her body. "It's hard to pinpoint anything in particular yet."

"Okay," she spoke as she got to her feet. "I just wanted to see if you guys had anything. Night guys."

"Goodnight, you can come back anytime," Burke replied as she left the room. He turned to Reid as soon as the door closed. "Why didn't you make something up?"

"What?" The younger man asked confused.

"She's hot and she clearly just wanted an excuse to lie off on your bed so that you could stare at her!"

"No, she didn't," Reid retorted quietly. He thought that he was doing a very convincing job of acting like him and Elle were just friends.

"I study human behaviour, just like you, and I know women, unlike you, and trust me, she wants you," he argued passionately.

"We're just friends."

"Uh oh," Burke said quietly, "she thinks of you as the gay boyfriend." Reid gave him the most puzzled expression that he had ever seen. "Just pay attention to the way she acts around you, profile her for God's sake." Burke gave him advice as he pulled down the covers of his bed and tossed his t-shirt aside. "She's so hot," he mumbled.

Reid smirked to himself as he also got ready for bed and turned off the lights. Unbeknownst to Burke, he was fully aware that Elle was hot and that she did indeed want him.

**A/N: Did I answer more questions?? Please review! :)**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Thanks to reviewers and my beta! :)**

**Disclaimer: Same as always.**

**Chapter 4 – Rekindling a Spark**

The BAU, Elle, Emily, and Morgan arrived at the Springfield field office early and ready to work. "One of my agents can take your team to the crime scene just outside of the city," Agent Newman announced shortly after their arrival.

"And I've already been to the scene in Missouri so I can take some of you out there," Clark added.

Agent Colburn stepped into the bullpen with a very confused look on his face. "The front desk just called and said that someone is heading up here that wants to see the BAU."

The initial reaction was distrustful; Hotch's and Burke's hands instinctively found the butt of their guns. Tension rose as they heard the elevator doors 'ding' open but a collective sigh of relief was released when the person in question walked into the bullpen.

"Dave, what are you doing here?" Gideon asked curiously as he looked at his old friend and former team-mate.

He chuckled lightly as he approached the agents. "I was in town for a lecture at the University of Chicago."

"I read and enjoyed your newest book, Agent Rossi," Reid said excitedly.

Rossi gave the young, overzealous man a small smile. "Thank you." He turned back to Hotch and Gideon. "Do you think that I could be of some assistance with this case? Heard about it through the FBI grapevine," he added with a sly smirk.

"Of course," Gideon replied quickly. As if upon order, Reid took a copy of the case file out of his messenger bag and handed it to Rossi. "We're going to the crime scenes."

"In different states, right?" Rossi asked as he attempted to get all of the accurate information.

Hotch nodded, "Yes. Missouri and Illinois both seem to be comfort zones. Agent Clark, where exactly is the farm on which Katrina Miller's body was found?"

"Its outside of Kirksville, Missouri, not far from where the Mississippi River runs through, basically two hours from here sir."

"And who is the owner of the property?" Hotch questioned.

"A Mr. Ryan Powell," Clark answered quickly.

Emily's head snapped up from the file that she was reading. "What?" She asked panicked.

Clark turned to her in misunderstanding. "Uhh…Ryan Powell is the owner of the property that Katrina Miller's body was found on."

"You gotta be kidding me," she said quietly to herself and with a sigh.

"What is it?" Morgan asked concerned. He and Emily had gotten quite close over the past year; she was like one of his sisters now.

"He's my ex-fiancé," she answered in obvious shock.

"No!" JJ gasped. She remembered discussion of Emily's fiancé while they were in the safe house.

The dark haired woman nodded. "Yeah."

Hotch took a moment to compose himself before he spoke. He wasn't a fan of the feelings that were awakening in him at the mention of someone who had once been a huge part of Emily's life. "So you know the property?"

She nodded once again and prompted Gideon to make a bold suggestion. "You should go to the crime scene."

Her eyes widened slightly but she remained utterly professional, "Of course, because I know the property."

"Okay, so Agent Clark will take Prentiss, Burke, and I to the Missouri crime scene," Hotch stated firmly while looking at Gideon.

Emily picked up on the meaning behind his words; he was distancing himself from her by using her last name.

"And Reid, Rossi, and I will go to the crime scene here," Gideon replied to Hotch's division of labour. He might be the Unit Chief, but Hotch and he ran the team together.

"Agent Hicks will go with you," Newman ordered the younger agent.

"JJ, call Garcia and see if she's dug anything else up," Gideon called on the blonde before beginning the walk towards the elevator with Hicks, Reid, and Rossi.

"Okay, let's leave too," Hotch said while looking at Agent Clark and gesturing towards the door.

--------------------

Emily sighed heavily; she was driving down the all too familiar stretch of highway. They were approximately twenty minutes away from Powell Farm.

She was in the backseat of the SUV with Agent Clark from St. Louis with Hotch driving and Burke in the passenger seat. It made sense that she was travelling with them since she knew the land and its owner but she was dreading seeing him again.

"Agent Prentiss, what can you tell us about the land owner?" Clark asked turning towards her.

"The question is what _can't_ I tell you," she spoke to herself quietly.

"Excuse me?"

"Sorry," she apologized. "Ryan Powell, 30. The land used to belong to his parents but they legally turned it over to him two years ago when they moved to St. Louis. He's the son of a minister and a housewife. He has an older sister and a younger brother."

"He's a preacher's kid?" Burke asked laughing.

"Yeah, the family is quite wealthy, old money," she explained. "His grandfather on his mother's side owned most of the farm land outside of the St. Louis metropolitan area for decades, so he has money and resources." She stopped and gathered her thoughts. Her friends had always claimed that he was with her for her money and her connections when really he had his own. "He owns an apartment in St. Louis but spends most of his time out here. He has a degree in accounting from Notre Dame so whenever he has business in the city he stays in his apartment. But he loves the farm and does the majority of his work from home." She stopped again and sighed, she was rambling about her ex-fiancé. "I think that's it."

"How big is the land?" Hotch asked, changing the topic. He wasn't exactly in the mood to hear about one of Emily's former lovers.

"A dozen acres, I can't say for sure."

"The body was found on the north end of the property," Clark stated.

"Ooh, we turn off here," Emily pointed out the beginning of a dirt road on their left. "We should be there in about ten minutes," she approximated.

She was practically spot on; Hotch parked the SUV just outside of a wooden fence that encompassed the property as far as their eyes could see nine minutes later. The four FBI agents exited the vehicle and, almost in unison, put on sunglasses. It was a very hot day in Missouri and the sun was bright and pouring down on them.

Emily immediately regretted her decision to wear her red blouse and black pant suit as the temperature hit her. She almost blushed from embarrassment when she saw Ryan chopping wood in the front yard. He was dressed in a pair of jeans; he had never really understood the concept of wearing a shirt when he wasn't accounting. He looked like a stereotypical farm boy with cowboy boots and a cream coloured cowboy hat. The sweat was practically pouring off of him and it caused the large, hard muscles of his upper body to glisten. She sighed as they began to walk towards him. Why did he have to be so visually appealing?

Hotch reached him first and pulled his badge out of the inside pocket of his suit jacket and held it in front of him. "We're looking for Ryan Powell."

Ryan smiled and carefully laid down the axe that he had in his hands. "Yes, how can I help you?"

"Yeah, that's him," Emily responded to Hotch's confused glance. He wasn't exactly what the FBI agent had expected.

"Emily?" He asked excitedly as he sized up the woman in front of him. It was without a doubt her, with her tall, slim body and shoulder length, dark hair. Large sunglasses covered her face but he didn't spend five years with her to not be able to recognize her. Besides, her voice was unmistakable, smooth and sultry but when she got excited it became rather high-pitched. He loved her voice.

"Yeah," she replied quietly, "it's me. We need to talk to you."

"Yeah, sure." He smiled brightly. He never would have imagined that he'd be this happy to see her.

Agent Clark stepped forward and held out his hand. "We spoke the other day, Mr. Powell."

Ryan wiped his hand in his jeans before shaking the man's hand. "Yes Agent Clark, what else can I do for you?"

"These are agents Hotchner and Burke from the Behavioural Analysis Unit and Agent Prentiss from the Chicago field office," Clark made the introductions.

He gave the two men strong handshakes and gently took Emily's hand. "Pleasure," he smiled.

"So can you show us to the crime scene?" Clark asked eagerly.

"Yeah sure. I just have to go to the house first," he answered.

"Agent Burke will go with you," Hotch stated as he made eye contact with Burke. Burke nodded after receiving the order from his supervisor and followed Ryan Powell to the farm house.

"Did you say that you had a previous relationship with Mr. Powell, Agent Prentiss?" Clarke asked nosily.

"Yeah," she nodded, "a serious relationship."

An awkward silence fell over the three agents until Burke returned with Ryan who had pulled on a plain, white t-shirt. "Okay, so you can just follow me," he said pleasantly.

As they followed the young man to the crime scene, Hotch began to look at him as a suspect. He was certainly physically capable, standing at about six foot five with strong muscles and used to farm labour, so handling another person would not be strenuous. Their unsub was a sexual sadist and Ryan certainly came off as honest, sincere, and innocent, exactly what they were looking for. And he was most definitely heterosexual.

"Emily, does he smoke?" He asked her quietly. They had found cigarette burns on the bodies.

She shook her head. "No, I was the smoker."

They saw the bright, yellow crime scene tape from a distance. "Okay, there it is," Ryan announced.

Hotch looked to his right and saw a large barn. "Prentiss, would you mind searching the barn?"

She shook her head again. "No, not at all," she replied professionally when really it was the last thing that she wanted to do. She walked up to Ryan and spoke awkwardly, "May I search your barn?"

He nodded with a smile on his face. "Sure, I'll show you around in case you forgot." He led her away from her colleagues and to the barn, and pulled open one of the large doors.

"Hotch, you do realize that if Powell is the unsub then we just handed him his victim type?" Burke asked him concerned.

The older man nodded, "Emily can take care of herself."

Once inside of the barn, Emily pulled her mini flashlight out of her pocket and gave the lower layer a thorough scan. She peered into all of the horses' stalls before being satisfied with her search. "Do you want me to bring you up to the loft too?" He asked with a small smirk. They were both aware of the memories that were going to resurface when they went up to the loft of the barn.

She nodded, took a deep breath, and tucked her hair behind her ears. "God its warm," she said to herself but he overheard.

"Then take off your jacket for once in your life," he said laughing. She gave him a subtle glare before she did decide to remove her black blazer. He smiled, "You look really good."

"Thanks," she said softly, "you do too."

"Okay, so after you," he said while gesturing towards the ladder that led to the loft.

She groaned as she looked down at her black heels, another wardrobe decision that she regretted today. She began to climb the ladder and Ryan followed her. When she reached the top, she practically turned blood red as she looked at the large pile of hay in the top corner of the loft. "Oh God," she whispered to herself. This trip was ten times more embarrassing than she had originally envisioned.

She started to shine her flashlight around the area but stopped when something that was shimmering caught her eye. Her heart sank. She may not be involved with him anymore but she couldn't even wrap her head around the fact that Ryan may be a sadistic serial killer. She knew that blood gleamed in the light so she moved forward to investigate.

"Em, be careful, some of the floorboards over there are really loose." He had barely gotten the words out of his mouth when her step produced a loud cracking noise. He immediately leaned forward and wrapped a strong arm around her waist, pulling her out of harm's way. He swept her up into his arms and cradled her against his chest. "Are you okay?" He asked frantically as he heard the offending floorboards hit the bottom of the barn, 20 feet below them.

"Umm…yeah…I think so," she replied, still in a state of shock. "I think that I rolled my ankle, but that's no big deal."

"No, it is, here. I gotta bring you back to the house," he said firmly.

"Ryan…" she began to protest but he cut her off.

"No, it might swell so I'm bringing you back to the house," he replied determinedly. He made sure that she was secure in his arms before he walked down the ladder forwards. He had done it many times before carrying things much heavier than Emily so he didn't think twice about either of their safety.

"I can walk, you're not carrying me the whole way," she stated annoyed.

He smiled down at her. "Stop being stubborn."

"Hey what happened?" Burke asked curiously when Ryan emerged from the barn with Emily in his arms.

"She turned over her ankle," Ryan explained, "so I'm taking her to the house to put some ice on it." Burke could see the uncomfortable look on Emily's face but he merely grinned. "You can continue analyzing your crime scene."

"Okay man, we'll come and check on her when we're done," Burke replied before returning to where Hotch and Clark were standing.

"What's going on?" Hotch asked concerned.

"Prentiss hurt her ankle," Burke replied simply.

"Is she okay?"

"Yeah," Burke nodded, "Powell is just taking her to put some ice on it."

Meanwhile……

Emily sighed and took off her sunglasses as Ryan made his way across the farmland. "Can you please put me down?" She begged, bordering on angry.

He laughed, "This is for your own good. Does anything else hurt?"

"You mean besides my dignity?" She asked rhetorically.

He laughed again, "Come on, I've seen you much less graceful than that. You didn't leave anything in the barn did you?"

She had her blazer and sunglasses in her hand, her flashlight in her pocket, and her gun was still on her hip. "No, I have everything."

"You've lost a little weight, I think."

She blushed, "Let's just stop talking."

Once he reached the house, he carried her up over the front steps of the porch, manoeuvred the screen door open, and brought her into the living room. He laid her gently down on the couch before running into the kitchen and retrieving a small pack of ice. He knelt down on the carpeted floor and insisted on removing her high heel shoe and black sock. "Oh, it's swollen all ready," he declared before gently pressing the icepack against her right ankle. "I'm going to go get you a bandage."

She leaned forward and held the icepack in place in his absence. "Ryan, why are you doing all this?" She asked confused when he returned to the living room with a bandage in his hand.

"Because I'm a gentleman," he grinned as he knelt down in front of her again. "Hey Em," he started as he began to wrap her foot.

"Yeah," she replied as she looked up at him.

"You know that you still have some of your stuff here, right?"

"Yeah," she answered awkwardly.

"Then why didn't you ever come and get it? Same with the stuff in the apartment?" He asked puzzled.

"Well I thought that you wouldn't want to see me," she explained rationally.

He gave her a small smile. "I always want to see you."

She raised her eyebrow in confusion. What the hell was he getting at? Luckily they were interrupted by Burke walking through the front door. "How's the klutz?"

Ryan laughed, "She can't put on her shoe."

Burke laughed along with him. "No big deal, I'll piggyback her to the SUV," he teased.

"Are you guys finished?" Emily asked anxiously.

He nodded, "Yup, we just have to get you out of here now."

Ryan walked towards her and Emily looked up at him fearfully. "What are you doing?"

He laughed, "I'm going to carry you out to the SUV." She didn't have time to protest before she was scooped up by strong arms so she sighed heavily as a substitute.

--------------------

The crime scenes in Missouri and outside of Springfield were identical and just what they had expected from looking at the photos. They were completely controlled.

The profiler in Hotch told him that never in a million years would a sexual sadist dump a body on his own property, but he couldn't help but be suspicious of Ryan Powell. All of the victims resembled Emily, his ex-fiancé, and that was highly unnerving.

They had taken Emily to the emergency room and she was now on crutches for a few days after being diagnosed with an ankle sprain. So the FBI agents returned to the hotel with Rossi, who was technically in his second retirement, and he got himself a room. Gideon had asked Reid to call Garcia after the entire computer system of the Springfield field office had spontaneously crashed. She would be joining them in the morning and the team that had assembled a year ago would be together again, with the addition of Burke.

They ate dinner at the hotel before returning to their respective rooms.

Hotch immediately pulled his tie loose after he had entered his hotel room and Gideon had followed him, for what reason he did not know. Gideon observed Hotch curiously, the younger man had been quiet since returning from Missouri and Gideon felt that he knew why. It had something to do with the dark haired woman staying down the hall. He wasn't quite sure of all of the details but he could read his friend and co-worker just as well as any unsub, and something inside of Hotch had definitely snapped upon seeing Emily Prentiss.

JJ entered her room and got ready to go to bed. She had a press conference to give tomorrow. She was especially excited for morning to come because Garcia would be joining them and it would be her first case out of her office. It would be nice to have that same team from a year ago reunited. They had worked extremely well together and had blended as if they had known each other forever.

Emily slowly made her way down to the vending machine in the lobby on her crutches. She had never spent so much time and energy to get a chocolate bar. She wasn't in the best mood and she was hoping that chocolate would help. She was debating who was annoying her more right now, Ryan Powell or Aaron Hotchner? The man who had broken off their engagement a year ago and was now showing renewed interest in her, or the man who she hadn't spoken with in six months and was now acting like her feeling of being 'over it' was abnormal? She sighed heavily as she made her way back to her room. She didn't want to think about men anymore.

Rossi placed his suitcase in the corner and settled into his hotel room. He was back at work yet again and happy about it. He told himself that he was only consulting this time because he did not have a badge or a gun, but he would invest all of his thoughts into the case like he always had. He took the file that Reid had handed him earlier and began to read it through again.

Morgan flicked on the television in his room and decided to relax a little before turning in. It was nice to get out of Chicago for a little while, especially when it meant meeting up with old friends. He had come over to the FBI from ATF shortly after returning from D.C. a year ago and he couldn't be happier with his new post. He spent almost every day working with Emily and they had grown quite close. She was probably his best friend, besides his mother of course. On top of that, he had maintained regular contact with Penelope Garcia and was looking forward to seeing her in person tomorrow.

After quickly changing into pyjama pants, one of her many Princeton affiliated t-shirts, and flip-flops, Elle took the elevator down to the first floor and walked to Reid's room. She knocked softly on his door and patiently waited for someone to answer. A part of her desperately wanted Burke to be out; she wanted some time alone with her boyfriend. She inwardly sighed when Burke was the one to open the door.

"Good evening," he smiled.

"Hey, what are you guys doing?" She asked, sounding pleasant.

"Nothing," he replied as he pulled the door wide open and allowed her to step inside the room. "We were just talking."

She smiled as she saw Reid sitting on his bed, under the bedcovers, in pyjama pants and a plain blue t-shirt. She walked over, crawled under the covers, and sat next to him on his bed and Burke took a seat across from them on his bed. "So what were you guys talking about?"

"Just a case we had last month in New Hampshire," Reid answered anxiously; he wondered what Elle was up to with these nightly visits to their room.

"Yeah, but we don't need to continue talking about something so depressing," Burke said quickly as he shot Reid a glare.

Elle gave him a small smile as she decided that she was going to verbally distract the older man. "So where are you from?"

"Queens, New York," he responded smiling.

She laughed lightly, "Brooklyn."

"No way," he laughed.

She nodded as her hand out of Burke's sight snaked over to Reid's body and slid up his thigh. She heard the young genius produce a low squeak but it did not deter her and she continued her conversation with Burke. "What did you do before the FBI?"

"I was NYPD," he answered proudly.

"My Dad was an NYPD officer," she commented before asking, "how long did you serve?"

He paused for a moment. "Uhh…six years. But I liked being a beat cop."

She smiled, "So did my Dad." She smirked to herself as her boyfriend twitched when her hand reached its final destination.

"What did you do before the FBI?" He asked curiously.

"I was a teacher, high school chemistry," she laughed lightly. She turned towards the clock on the bedside table and smiled as she said, "Actually, I should probably go now, we have to be up early tomorrow." She gave Reid's inner thigh a light pat before she got up off of the bed. She could see the look of shock and frustration on his face and it caused her to playfully wrinkle her nose at him. "I'll see you guys at breakfast."

Burke smiled, "Yes ma'am." She smiled at both men before she left the room. Burke laughed before he turned to his roommate. "Reid, what the hell?"

"What?" He squeaked and quickly cleared his throat. "What?"

"Why were you so quiet?"

"Well, I already knew all of those things about you and I already knew all of those things about her," he explained rationally. He sighed inwardly, his girlfriend was a huge tease and he would be talking to her about it as soon as possible.

"Yeah, but you could have made pleasant conversation just to humour her, she sat on your bed."

"Because she feels comfortable with me," Reid answered simply. He had the answers to all of these questions.

"You should see how comfortable," Burke smirked.

Reid sighed and shook his head before announcing that he was going to the bathroom to brush his teeth. This act that he was putting on for Burke wasn't challenging but it was slightly irritating and eventually Burke was going to smarten up and not be blinded by Elle's looks.

**A/N: So they're almost all back together again. LOL. Tell me what you think about the surprise appearance of Emily's fiance!! Review!! :)**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Thanks for the reviews! It makes me happy! :)**

**Disclaimer: Same as always.**

**Chapter 5 – Taking Credit**

Garcia walked through the airport and smiled brightly when she saw that Morgan was waiting for her. He was wearing a plain, black t-shirt, black fatigues, and hiking boots. He was clean shaven and he was tossing a set of car keys from one had to the other. He looked like he was anxious to break this case. "Hey, I heard that you guys need a technical analyst," she announced as she approached him.

He smiled back at her before pulling her into a hug. "Hey baby girl, how are you?" She hadn't changed much in a year. She still dressed the same way and she still liked to play with colors in her hair. This time it was blue.

"I'm great," she answered honestly, "you?"

"I'm good, I'm good, great now that you're here," he said smoothly.

"This is pretty early for you to be up," she teased. "Did you get the short straw?"

"Hey, I volunteered! Come on smartass, let's get your luggage." He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and steered her towards the luggage conveyer belt.

--------------------

Morgan drove Garcia to the hotel where she checked in and dropped her bags off in her room before they joined the rest of their friends at the Springfield field office.

They walked into the bullpen and saw that everyone was sitting around a long table.

"Hey Em!" Garcia said excitedly upon seeing the brunette. "What happened to your foot?" She asked immediately as she saw the crutches leaning against Emily's chair.

"I sprained my ankle yesterday," Emily answered with a sigh after they gently hugged.

"Hey Elle!" Garcia hugged the other brunette and then respectfully shook hands with the legendary David Rossi before taking a seat at the table next to JJ. "Hey Jayge."

"Hey, how does it feel to be out of the office?"

"Pretty good," Garcia smiled. "Now I get to see what you guys do all the time, the travel, it's exciting."

JJ smiled to herself before concentrating on the group conversation. "We're no closer to catching this guy, are we?" Morgan asked with frustration.

Nobody responded to his question and that was answer enough. "We need to get him to make contact with us," Gideon stated.

"How are we going to do that?" Garcia asked curiously.

"I am, right?" JJ asked. "Through the press conference?" It was something that they had done before. She had talked to the unsub directly through an organized press conference while creating the false impression that she was there providing the media with information or giving a public announcement. "What do you want me to say?"

"Say that the BAU has determined that the murders of Abigail Foster and Katrina Miller are unrelated, as are the abductions of Courtney Piercey and Leona Murphy," Rossi answered.

"How will that get him to contact us?" Agent Newman asked confused.

"Because hearing JJ say that will anger him," Hotch answered.

"He wants to be credited for his work," Morgan added.

"We scheduled the press conference yesterday for twelve o'clock today," Agent Colburn stated, "so the media won't be here for at least another hour."

"Smart," Reid said quietly and everyone at the table turned towards him. "Well, we profiled our unsub as being employed, so at noon he'll be on a lunch break."

--------------------

JJ took a calming breath as she stood next to the podium in the conference room. She looked down at her wrist watch and saw that it was ten to twelve. The members of the media were already here and they were anxiously waiting. Garcia had the trap and trace set up on the hotline number that the Springfield office had created, so the BAU and other agents were also eager for noon to arrive.

Hotch and Gideon stood at the back of the room while the rest of their team waited in the bullpen. They were used to seeing JJ this calm; she had never ever gotten nervous for a press conference. This was her niche. She had a composed, steady, and sincere voice and she was visually appealing. She looked like the girl next door with her long, blonde hair and blue eyes, but she was dressed professionally in a white blouse and black pant suit. She was the face of the BAU that the public identified with and believed. She was credible.

Gideon gave her a small nod and that was JJ's cue to step onto the podium. She began the press conference and the rest of the BAU, along with Elle, Morgan, Emily, and Rossi watched it on the TV in the bullpen.

"JJ's phrasing is perfect," Rossi commented and Reid nodded in agreement. "We should definitely get a rise out of the unsub with this."

JJ announced that the BAU had concluded that the murders and abductions are unrelated and that if anyone had any information on the isolated crimes to call the hotline number, the number that was appearing on televisions across the country.

When the press conference was over, the media slowly filed out of the building and Hotch, Gideon, and JJ returned to the bullpen.

"Now we wait," Gideon said as he took a seat across from Garcia.

At one o'clock, the end of the lunch hour, they still had not received a call from their unsub. "Why hasn't he called yet?" Elle asked, annoyed.

"Maybe he's waiting for something," Reid answered slowly; he was grasping at straws.

"Like what, Reid?" Burke asked curiously.

"I don't know," he replied quietly.

Time passed and all that the hotline had received was useless tips. Gideon looked down at his wrist watch and saw that it was almost five o'clock and they had spent the past hours looking over victimology, the geographic profile, and crime scene details, with nothing new to show for their efforts. "Okay," he started after taking a deep breath. "Garcia, you're going to have to stay here but the rest of us can work in one hour shifts. Agent Newman and I will start. The rest of you go get some rest."

Before everyone left, the shift schedule was written in the corner of the whiteboard. Hotch and agents Clark and Morris would relieve Gideon and Newman. Next Emily and Morgan would take their turn, then it would be JJ and Burke, and then Reid and Elle, and finally, if need be, Rossi and agents Hicks and Colburn.

--------------------

Rossi, Emily, Morgan, Elle, Hotch, Burke, Reid, and JJ were gathered around two tables in the hotel restaurant. They were having their dinner as they discussed the case.

"Why hasn't he called yet?" JJ asked the same question that Elle had posed at the field office.

Hotch looked across the table at Reid. "What is it Reid?" Something seemed to be puzzling the young genius.

"I don't know," he answered honestly. "I think that he's waiting for something."

He would not denounce the young man's hunch. He still had a strong feeling that this case somehow involved Ryan Powell and he wasn't about to abandon his instinct. They had collectively ruled him out as the unsub but Hotch was convinced that he still somehow fit into this case. He just had to figure out how.

Once they finished their meal, Hotch headed back to the field office while everyone else returned to their rooms.

A little less than an hour later, the unsub had still neglected to contact the BAU, and as a result, Emily heard a knock on her door. "Need any help, gimp?" Morgan teased from the hallway.

"Shut up, Morgan!" She yelled back as she slowly moved towards the door. She opened the door and greeted him with a less than pleasant expression.

He laughed lightly, "Ready to go, Em?"

"I am coming off of these crutches tomorrow regardless," she stated stubbornly. She was used to being independent and working through pain. She could deal with walking on a sprained ankle.

"Okay, princess," Morgan laughed.

Emily grumbled as she left her hotel room and locked the door behind her. She would only complain about her injury around Morgan. He was her best friend. They were two of the few agents at the Chicago field office who socialized with each other outside of work. He knew her moods, and she knew his, and that translated into a pretty open relationship.

Another hour later, Burke left his hotel room, leaving Reid alone. The young genius waited ten minutes or so before racing out of his room and up to the second floor. He impatiently knocked on Elle's door. He barged inside her room as soon as she opened the door for him.

"Hey! What are you doing?" The brunette asked in surprise as her boyfriend grabbed her by the waist and pulled her in.

"I came to see you," he answered quietly. He leaned down for a quick kiss. "You were trying to kill me last night weren't you?"

She grinned mischievously as she grabbed her hotel room key before taking his hand. "Let's go somewhere else."

He stared at her confused but continued to follow her lead.

--------------------

"No, we can't," Elle sighed heavily as she stopped Reid's hands from undoing the button on her jeans. She was lying on the backseat of a Bureau SUV and her boyfriend was holding himself up above her. She hadn't wanted to stay in her hotel room so an empty vehicle in a dark, underground parking lot came to mind. He looked down at her with his gorgeous, brown eyes and put on his best puppy dog face. He leaned down and began to kiss along her stomach. Her open blouse gave him plenty of access to soft flesh and he relished in the opportunity. "Come on," she laughed lightly, "we can't actually have sex in the back of an FBI SUV."

He slid up her body and wound a hand in her long, soft hair. He began whispering in her ear in a very deep voice and it sent shivers down her spine. "We're only together every other weekend."

"I know," she agreed.

The hand that had been previously tangled in her hair slowly made its way down her body until it rested between her denim clad thighs. "We finally don't have to feel rushed because we only have a weekend together."

"I know," she repeated. She smirked when his large hand lifted her backside up off of the seat and playfully clutched a butt cheek before lifting her hips up higher so that they collided with his. "Reid stop teasing me, we really can't!"

He smiled at her sweetly. "Sorry, I've been noticing that my hormones have kind of taken over my brain since last night."

She laughed, "Yeah, I've been noticing that too."

He blushed and leaned down to kiss her. "Should we get ready to go to the field office now?"

She gave him a small, regretful nod. "Yeah but we're going to have to talk later about finding somewhere to be alone." She pulled him down for a kiss. "Somewhere better then a hotel filled with people we know and a government SUV I mean."

He chuckled, "Okay." He buttoned her blouse back up before climbing off of her, sitting on the seat and allowing her to do the same. He pulled his sweater back on over his dress shirt. Even though it was a typical Midwestern summer, it did cool down a little bit in the night time. Besides, he was lean enough to pull off multiple layers in hot weather.

Elle smoothed out her hair before she turned to him and laughed. "What?" He asked curiously.

"Come here," she motioned him towards her. He obeyed and she kissed him quickly before she ran both of her hands through his rather long hair. "Your hair is so messy; I'm trying to fix it."

He leaned in and kissed her neck as she continued to comb his hair with her fingers. "You're making me so hard," he mumbled against her skin.

"Well you can guess what you're doing to me," she whispered back.

He moved up to claim her lips and they began to kiss hungrily with eager tongues. He produced an irritated growl when his cell phone began to buzz. He fished his phone out of his pocket and read the text message.

_U should probably leave to come here now. Just reminding u in case ur busy with something or another._

"Who is it?" Elle asked as she ran her hands across his chest.

"Its Garcia, we should leave now."

"Okay," she agreed unhappily.

Meanwhile......

Garcia pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and held it in her lap, under the table, so that JJ and Burke could not see what she was doing. She found Reid's number in her phone and began to write him a message.

She had known that Reid was seeing someone by the way that he'd been acting the past year. He would come back on Mondays completely happy and rejuvenated and he looked forward to every weekend that they had off. She hadn't had a clue as to who his lady friend could be…until she saw the way that he looked at Elle Greenaway. It was obvious. To her, anyway. As far as she could tell, no one else had picked up on it.

So in her text message, she made it clear that she knew that something was going on, but she did not want to call him out. She and Reid had become good friends and she knew that he would tell her when he was ready. 'Patience is a virtue', and, 'all in good time' was what she kept telling herself. Ultimately, she just wanted to make sure that Reid was happy, and he certainly seemed to be by being here in Illinois, with a certain someone.

--------------------

"Nothing?" Rossi questioned as he walked into the bullpen at ten o'clock.

Elle shook her head as she and Reid got to their feet. "Nothing," she confirmed.

"Okay," he sighed, "I'll see you guys back at the hotel."

He took a seat at the table with Garcia as he watched Reid and Elle leave the bullpen. Shortly after, the young agents Hicks and Colburn joined him and they began to play the waiting game.

The phone rang at half past ten, for the first time in forty-five minutes, and Garcia perked up in her seat. She got her fingers ready as they waited for the automated message to kick in.

"Hello, you've reached the FBI tip hotline for the Chicago abductions and murders."

There was silence on the line, followed by heavy breathy, and it prompted Rossi to lean forward in his seat in interest. There was another deep breath before a deep voice spoke, "If you think that they're unrelated then you've missed something on Powell Farm."

Garcia looked up at Rossi with a look of shock on her face as the line went dead.

**A/N: Dun dun duhhhh!! LOL. Review please!! :)**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: As always, thanks for the reviews!! :) For those who read, reviewed, and liked What If?, I hope I'm not disappointing.**

**Disclaimer: Same as always.**

**Chapter 6 – The Search**

"What was that?" Garcia asked immediately.

"Our unsub," Rossi answered while looking straight at her.

"Really?" She asked excitedly. "How do you know?"

"Because he's correcting us, telling us that the murders and the abductions are related. He's taking credit, and for some reason he wants our attention directed towards Powell Farm." Rossi paused and thought for a moment. "Was there anything on the trace?"

Garcia shook her head. "No, he used a disposal cell phone."

Rossi nodded. He had been expecting that. "We need to search that property." He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and dialled Gideon's number.

"_Yeah_," Gideon answered his phone informally.

"We just got a call from our unsub."

"_What did he say_?" Gideon asked urgently.

"That if we think that the crimes are unrelated, then we've missed something on Powell Farm."

"_Powell Farm_?" Gideon repeated confused.

Rossi nodded to himself. "Powell Farm."

"_Was a full search of that property done_?"

Rossi turned to agents Hicks and Colburn. "Was Powell Farm searched?"

Colburn picked a file up off of the table and quickly searched through it. "No," the young man shook his head.

"No," Rossi relayed the new information to Gideon.

"_Then we have to search it_."

--------------------

The wakeup call came at three-thirty in the morning; they would be leaving at first light. When Rossi had returned, they had collectively decided to get their rest because there was no sense in doing a full property search in the dark. They had every legal right to search every single inch of Ryan Powell's property and they intended to do so.

Gideon awoke almost effortlessly and quickly dressed. He made his way down to the lobby to wait for the rest and found that Rossi and Hotch were already there. His two closest friends had obviously awoken earlier then he. He saw that Rossi was dressed in attire similar to his own, jeans and a plain, button-down shirt, while Hotch, forever the professional, was wearing a black suit and a blue dress shirt. He could see that they were as restless as he was.

Burke yawned as his alarm clock went off and woke him up. He sat up in his bed and looked over at his partially awake roommate, who was also sitting up in his bed. Reid's hair was messy and his eyes were half-lidded. Both men got to their feet and Reid went into the bathroom while Burke began to throw clothes out of his suitcase and onto his bed. They were both ready in under fifteen minutes. Burke had changed into a pair of black cords and a red t-shirt and Reid was wearing beige cords, a white dress shirt, and a pale yellow tie. He sleepily grabbed his messenger bag as he followed Burke out of the room.

Morgan reluctantly got up out of bed. He was more than ready to catch this unsub. It was unsettling him more every day that the victims resembled Emily. As far as he knew, his friend was yet to acknowledge it, but it didn't stop it from unnerving him. The hair and the eyes…the resemblances were uncanny. He shook himself out of his thoughts. He could not let his mind go there when, as far as he knew, he was the only one who saw it.

Garcia almost rolled out of her bed and onto the floor when she was jolted out of her precious sleep by the alarm clock. She groaned as she made her way to the bathroom. She had absolutely no idea why Gideon had suggested that she accompany the team to Missouri but she was not about to correct a supervisor. Besides, after being informed by JJ that Powell Farm was owned by Emily's ex-fiancé, she was somewhat excited to see what he looked like.

The former roommates, Elle and JJ, met on their way to the lobby. When Elle had emerged from the stairwell, unfortunately she was the only one on the second floor, she had almost smacked into the blonde. Both young women were dressed for being in the field. There were no high heels, blouses, or dress pants. JJ's hair was in a flawless ponytail while Elle had left her hair down; it was all about being comfortable.

Emily dressed in a navy t-shirt and black fatigues before sitting down on the edge of the bed and slowly wrapping her injured foot in a bandage. She winced as she slowly slipped her foot into her boot. It was still slightly swollen, but she was sick of the crutches. She tied her hair back into a ponytail and then filled her backpack with snack foods, packaged sandwiches, and bottles of water. Based on the sheer size of Ryan's property, she knew they were going to be in Missouri all day.

She made her way down to the lobby and saw that everyone else was there except for Garcia. She was about to question her whereabouts when she heard the eccentric blonde behind her. "Sorry! Sorry! Sorry I'm late!"

"You're not late, Garcia," Hotch told her seriously.

Morgan gave Emily a quick once over, his eyes lingering on her ankles, before he made eye contact with her. She gave him that look that told him to keep his mouth shut so he swallowed his original comments about her lack of crutches and turned to Gideon instead. "Are we ready to leave?"

Gideon nodded, "Yeah, Agent Clark told me that him and Morris will meet us there with a team of agents."

Hotch held one set of SUV keys and Burke the other. They spilt up into two groups of five and began the two hour drive to Powell Farm.

--------------------

Just before six o'clock in the morning they arrived at Powell Farm where agents Morris and Clark were waiting for them with a team of six other agents.

"We just got here too," Morris said as soon as they had all filed out of the two SUVs.

The large team of FBI agents, a former FBI agent, and a technical analyst were about to open the gate and step onto the property when a pickup truck came into view. It stopped and Ryan Powell quickly hopped out. Emily automatically sighed upon seeing him. He was wearing more clothes than their last encounter, so that was a start. After all, it was always chillier first thing in the morning. He was dressed in blue jeans, a black sweater, and his cowboy hat and boots.

Garcia gently nudged JJ in the ribs. "Is that him?"

"I don't know," JJ laughed lightly. "I've never seen him before either."

The man in question opened the gate for them and gestured for them to step inside. "What can I do for you this time?"

"We need to search your whole property Mr. Powell," Gideon stated upfront.

Ryan paused for a moment and stared back at him in surprise. "Hmm…yeah…go ahead…well, there's not much I can do anyway cuz you guys have a warrant, but yeah, you're welcome to."

"Can you tell us about the property? Provide a map perhaps?" Rossi asked.

Ryan nodded, "Yeah, there may be one in the house."

"We'll need to search that as well," Hotch added.

The large group walked towards the house but only Ryan, Gideon, and Hotch went inside. "If they're here then they're upstairs," Ryan stated before running up the stairs. "Okay, I have one!" He called out after finding it in one of the drawers in the bedroom that formerly belonged to his parents. "It was my grandfather's, so it might need a little updating," he spoke as he walked down over the stairs. He moved into the living room and Hotch and Gideon followed. He placed the map on the coffee table and examined it closely. "There is a barn here now," he said as he sketched a barn onto the map in pen. "A garage and tool shed are here by the house but I think that everything else is correct. Oh, and this land here is all crops." He drew a large rectangle in the right hand corner of the map.

"Can we get seven copies of that?" Gideon asked quickly.

The FBI agents followed Ryan into an office and he began to make copies of the map by placing it under his photocopier. "Can you give us an overview of the property?" Hotch requested.

"The barn next to the crime scene is for the horses. There's also a barn for the cattle and another for supplies, a large chicken coop, garage, a tool shed, and there will be animals grazing in the fields." He took the seven recently produced copies of the map and handed them to Agent Hotchner.

"How many acres?"

"14," Ryan replied empathetically.

Gideon scoffed before he and Hotch returned outside and Gideon spoke almost immediately, "Garcia, Reid, JJ, and Dave inside of the house and the rest of us outside."

Rossi stepped onto the front porch, followed by Garcia, JJ, and Reid, while everybody else moved away from the house and divided themselves up into groups. "David Rossi," he introduced himself with a small smile and a handshake.

"Ryan Powell," the young man replied uneasily.

"And these are agents Jennifer Jareau and Dr. Spencer Reid, and technical analyst Penelope Garcia."

Ryan smiled and shook each of their hands before saying, "Okay, so downstairs there is the living room, kitchen, dining room, office, and a bathroom. Upstairs there are four bedrooms and a bathroom. There's also an attic and a cellar. If you don't mind, I have chores to do."

"Of course not, Mr. Powell," Rossi replied understandingly.

"Come here, Charlie!" Ryan called out. Before they knew it, there was a large Golden Retriever running down over the stairs. "The house is all yours," he said flatly.

When Ryan left, Reid looked at Rossi. "He seems on edge."

"We're going through his whole life. We're invading his privacy. Wouldn't you be on edge?" Rossi asked rhetorically. There was a brief silence before the older man spoke again. "Garcia, why don't you and JJ start in the office with his computer, and Reid and I will start up the stairs."

Garcia and JJ did as was suggested and walked in the opposite direction of Reid and Rossi until they stumbled upon the home office. "Well, he's neat," JJ stated laughing lightly.

"Yeah," Garcia replied absentmindedly as she moved towards the desk. "And he's gorgeous."

JJ laughed, "He is handsome."

"Yeah, and he's tall. And did you see his arms?"

"Penelope," JJ began scolding.

"Okay, okay," Garcia answered sadly. She sat down in the computer chair, pushed open the cover on his laptop, and began to type. She smiled triumphantly, "Its password protected but far too unsophisticated for my skills."

"So what do you have?"

"Nothing," she shrugged. "He has a lot of files that ya know an accountant slash farmer would have." JJ laughed. "And I tracked his IP address and he's clean…not even any internet porn!" She typed another series of keys before her fingers froze. "Uh oh…" Garcia gasped as she stared at the screen in shock.

"What is it?" JJ asked worriedly.

"Jayge, come here."

JJ walked across the room so that she stood behind Garcia. She too gasped as she saw what her friend had been referring to. There were hundreds of pictures of Emily on his laptop. In his defence, he was in most of them, and in the ones that he wasn't, she seemed to be fully aware that a photograph was being taking. "What are we supposed to do about this?"

"What do you mean?" Garcia asked in confusion as she glanced up at the fellow blonde.

"Are we supposed to take this as a sign of a dangerous obsession, one that could be seen as a trigger, or a normal guy who just isn't over his ex-girlfriend yet?"

Meanwhile……

Reid and Rossi entered the bedroom that appeared to belong to Ryan Powell. It was functional and simple, a man's room that had obviously received a woman's touch at some point.

"A little obsessive compulsive, maybe?" Reid proposed as he began to look around the room.

"Maybe," Rossi responded, "or the importance of cleanliness was bred into him by his Baptist upbringing."

"Is that what Emily said?"

Rossi nodded, "Hmm hmm." He moved towards the closet but all he found was clothes, footwear, and a shoebox full of baseball cards. "Anything, Reid?"

The younger man shook his head. "Underwear and socks are neatly folded; a copy of the Bible in the top drawer of the bedside table but nothing to suggest that he is a sexual sadist." He pulled open another drawer and paused for a moment. "Rossi, what about this?"

"What is it?" Reid showed the older man the ring box and the piece of jewellery inside. "It's an engagement ring."

"With Emily's name engraved on it," Reid added.

--------------------

Hotch and Gideon returned to the house after their grid search was complete and met Reid and Rossi on the front porch. "Anything?" Gideon asked quickly.

Reid shook his head, "Nothing."

"We searched the whole house, attic and cellar included, no trophies, no murder kit, and no pornography," Rossi added.

"Nothing that points to a sexual sadist?" Hotch asked annoyed.

"Absolutely nothing," Rossi replied. "Besides we had already ruled this guy out as an unsub, why search his house?"

"We're missing something," Reid mumbled quietly.

The youngest man's comment went unnoticed and Rossi spoke again, "What about the property search, anything?"

Gideon shook his head. "Nothing, everything is clear. This guy has nothing to hide."

"We've gone over everything with a fine tooth comb, there's nothing here!" Rossi exclaimed in deep frustration.

"We're missing something," Reid repeated. "'If you think that they're unrelated then you've missed something on Powell Farm.'" The three others turned to Reid as he quoted the unsub. "He wants us to find something here."

"Well, what did we find?" Hotch asked.

Reid looked down at his feet as he thought. He sighed as he slowly raised his head. "We found photos on Ryan Powell's computer of him and Emily and we found Emily's old engagement ring."

**A/N: I hope that you're all finding this case intriguing. :) Review!!!**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Thanks for the reviews and alerts! :)**

**Disclaimer: Same as always.**

**Chapter 7 – The Calm after the Storm**

"Reid, are you saying that Emily's the connection?" Hotch asked sceptically.

"I don't know," Reid responded unsurely. "I'm just saying that that's all we've really found here."

Gideon took a deep breath as he ran a hand through his hair. "Let's keep this connection between us for now, there's no need to get everyone in a panic until we confirm or deny this." Gideon glanced behind him and saw that Ryan Powell was approaching the house. "Hotch, tell the St. Louis agents that we're done here. I'm going to have a talk with Ryan Powell."

Gideon stepped off of the front porch and met Ryan Powell on his way to the house. "Are you guys finished?" He asked anxiously.

Gideon nodded, "Yes we are."

"Find anything interesting?" He questioned nervously. He had no idea how a group of behavioural analysts would interpret his home.

Gideon gave him a small smile. He was certainly intelligent. "I saw your horses. They're gorgeous animals."

"Thanks. Do you mind if I put them in the barn while we talk?"

Gideon shook his head, "No, of course not." He began to follow the younger man as they walked away from the house. "Why are you putting them in the barn?" He asked curiously as he glanced at his wrist watch. It was just past one o'clock.

"Because they smell a thunder storm coming." He could tell from looking at the horses earlier that they were jittery and the forecast did call for a storm later today.

They reached the fenced in area where the horses were grazing and they both leaned on the gate. A large, black steed came towards them and Ryan petted his head affectionately. "What's this one's name?" Gideon asked interestedly, as he saw horses as very majestic creatures.

"Prince," Ryan replied before he turned serious. "So what's this conversation really about?"

Gideon laughed lightly before he got to the point. "Why do you have pictures of Agent Prentiss on your computer?"

"Because she was my girlfriend," he answered simply.

"Why do you still have her engagement ring?"

He sighed, "Yeah, I knew that would look bad. I still have it because she gave it back to me and I can't get rid of it." The FBI agent eyed him curiously and he sighed again. "Because of how she was raised, she puts on this tough girl act and compartmentalizes better than anyone so she'll tell you that nothing's wrong when there is and that she's okay when she isn't, and it can be hard to get her to open up sometimes." He stopped for a moment and laughed, "She loves her independence and she's as stubborn as hell. But she's funny, gorgeous, smart, kind and caring, and she actually has a really big heart. She's a hard girl to get over." He opened the gate to the fence and grabbed Prince's reins. "Now whether or not you think that I'm the guy whose killing these women doesn't matter to me. You're welcome to overnight in my house because you're not making it back to Springfield before the storm hits."

Gideon looked upwards toward the sky and saw rain clouds and thunderheads forming. "Thank you."

Ryan shrugged, "No problem." He began to lead Prince towards the horses' barn while Gideon walked back towards the house.

By the time that he returned, everyone was gathered around the front steps. They were sharing the food that Emily had brought with her. "Looks like a storm is coming," Morgan stated.

Gideon nodded, "Yeah, we're not going to make it back to Springfield before it hits."

"So what do you propose we do?" Rossi asked, even though he had a pretty good idea of where his friend was going with this.

"Mr. Powell has offered us his house to stay in for the night." JJ and Garcia looked slightly surprised and Emily seemed frustrated but no one else seemed to have a problem with it.

"Well, he isn't our unsub," Reid stated the obvious to make his two blonde friends feel a little bit more secure.

--------------------

The ten of them waited out the storm in Ryan Powell's living room. The only thing they had had to pass the time was incredibly awkward conversation.

Gideon sat in a chair in the corner and looked out the window. The storm was now past and it had lasted for six hours. It was nine o'clock in the evening and he could tell just by looking at the group of people that he had now come to refer to as his team, even though only five of them actually worked with him on a regular basis, that they were exhausted. After all, they had all gotten up this morning at three-thirty. They all needed their rest, so he was not going to be the one to suggest that they leave now and drive back to Springfield.

Hotch ignored the eerie feeling in the back of his mind. What if Reid was right and the photos and the engagement ring was what the unsub had wanted them to find? What if Emily was the connection? But what was their unsub doing? Was he just playing games? Or does he want to get caught so that the world finally acknowledges his work? All Hotch knew was that he wasn't going to get any sleep because he was going to spend all night thinking about the case.

Garcia giggled inwardly at the amount of sexual tension in the living room. Elle and Reid were looking across the room at each other every few minutes and Ryan and Emily were doing the same, except only when they were sure that the other one wasn't looking. She laughed to herself. The four adults were acting like teenagers. She just wondered if anybody else noticed.

Morgan placed his glass on a coaster on the coffee table. With the power outage and the storm being too severe for Ryan to go outside and start up the generator, cooking something was virtually impossible. Luckily, Ryan had enough leftover pizza in his oven to sufficiently feed eleven people. He was still hungry but he was far from starving and he had recently learned from Reid that according to the popular "Rule of Three", the human body could survive for a maximum of three weeks without food.

JJ shifted and crossed one leg over the other. No one was speaking and the atmosphere was deathly uncomfortable. She could tell that everyone was in deep thought and she was willing to bet that each person was thinking about something different.

Rossi sighed as he placed his hands in his pockets. He found his notebook that he took everywhere with him and made a mental note to himself to update his thoughts on the case later tonight. He would expand on the theory that he, Hotch, Reid, and Gideon had discussed. They needed to determine as soon as possible what the connection between the victims was, and if it indeed was Emily, he had no idea where they would go from there.

Emily felt the throbbing in her ankle increase and it infuriated her more than anything else. Sitting in the SUV for two hours, followed by an entire day of walking around at her normal pace and stride had not had a positive effect on her foot. She knew that her ankle was swollen and she could feel something soaking through her bandage and sock and she assumed that it was blood. At some point in the night, she would secretly raid Ryan's upstairs bathroom and search for a fresh bandage.

Reid lowered his head and looked down at his hands as he caught Elle's attention again. She had such a mischievous smile sometimes and she was incredibly distracting. He tried to keep his brain as focused as possible but it was a little difficult at times. The best that he could do was to keep a healthy balance between thinking about work and thinking about his girlfriend.

Elle smirked to herself as she took note of the effect that she had on Reid. He really was too cute. She desperately needed to talk to him in private at some point tonight. It was an anniversary, of sorts, for them.

Ryan took a deep breath before he got to his feet and looked out the window. "Well, it looks like the storm is over. I'm going to go and start the generator so we can get some light and running water."

"I'll give you a hand, man," Morgan offered considerately.

"Thanks," Ryan replied sincerely before he and Morgan walked out the front door.

"Yeah, I'm going to go out for some fresh air," Elle announced as she also got to her feet.

"I'll keep you company," Reid said smoothly as he followed her out the door. He accepted the fact that he had no self-discipline or will power when it came to her.

She stepped onto the front porch and immediately slipped her arms into her black jacket. "Wow, it's nice out now," she stated as she began to walk away from the house.

"It is," he agreed, "the sky is clear. You can see all the stars."

"Is there such a thing as the calm _after_ the storm?" She turned to him and smiled. "But I love it when you can see the stars."

He smiled back at her as they passed a small shed and he pulled her behind it, they were out of sight from the house. He leaned in and kissed her softly. "I finally have you alone."

She giggled as her arms snaked around his neck. "Can you point constellations out to me, boyfriend?"

"I've done that for you before," he replied laughing lightly.

"Please," she pouted as she played with his hair.

"Okay, fine," he gave in. He looked straight up into the sky before he said, "Well, you can see the Big Dipper, and you can see Orion tonight."

"Which one is that?" She asked excitedly as she looked up.

"The one that forms the shape of a hunter," he answered routinely.

"Do you even realize how much I've learned from you in the past year?" She asked as she pressed her lips against his.

"Just as much as I've learned from you," he replied cutely. She smiled at him and he used it as his cue to walk her backwards until she gently collided with the side of the shed. He placed his hands firmly on her hips before kissing her hungrily on the mouth.

She smirked at him seductively as she took hold of the collar of his dress shirt. "You know how much I love this side of you."

He returned her naughty expression before stealing another kiss and pressing their bodies together.

Meanwhile……

"I'm gonna go out for some air too," JJ said as he got up off of the couch. "Reid and Elle are still out there, right?"

Burke nodded. "I didn't see them come in."

JJ opened the screen door and stepped out onto the porch. It was now a clear night and stars blanketed the sky. It was warm, but not humid, and there was a wonderful breeze. It had turned into a perfect summer night. She began her walk with no final destination in mind since the Powell property was huge.

She had just reached a small shed to the right of the house when she heard a noise that sounded like a small groan. Her hand immediately went to her gun on her right hip. The unsub had dumped a body on this land so it was potentially a dangerous situation. She slowly crept forward, trying to be as quiet as humanly possible. She raised her gun as she rounded the corner of the building but the sight before her was anything besides a danger to her life.

She found Reid and Elle aggressively making out against the wall of the shed. Their mouths were latched on to one another's and one of her hands was in his hair and the other had begun to work open his belt while both of his hands had disappeared under her shirt, preoccupied with her chest.

JJ decided that it was best to forget that this ever happened and she slowly began to backup. She winced as she stepped on a pile of twigs, producing a large snapping sound. She opened her eyes to see Elle pull away from Reid and look straight at her. "I'm so sorry…" she apologized awkwardly. She allowed her instinct to overrule her brain and she simply ran back towards the house.

Elle sighed heavily as she tilted her head back to rest against the hard wood. She smiled to herself as Reid leaned in and kissed down her neck. "You want to continue?"

"I know JJ. I don't think that she'll say anything. She's a good friend, and the kind of person that you can talk to about anything, both her and Garcia. But if she does say something, then do you want to go back now or wait a little while for everyone to calm down?" He asked wisely.

"Good point." She fixed his belt, much to his disappointment, before wrapping her arms around his neck. "Your hands are still up my shirt," she giggled as she looked down.

"Well I'm not moving them now," he grinned. He paused for a moment to let her giggle again before he turned serious. "Elle, can I tell you something that I've been thinking about?" He asked timidly.

"Yeah sure. You can tell me anything, baby," she answered comfortingly.

"Well, I dunno if you remember but…umm…one year ago today we made love for the first time," he said quietly as his hands founds their way into her hair.

She smiled brightly, "I remembered."

"You did?" He asked slightly surprised.

She nodded, "Yeah, of course I did, although you might still not believe it, it meant as much to me as it did to you," she told him sincerely.

He leaned in and gave her a very sweet kiss. "I'm not going to get to actually say goodnight to you when we go inside the house so I'll say it now." He kissed her again. "Goodnight, I…" he stopped abruptly and looked down at his feet. He had been trying to get those three little words out for months now but he couldn't bring himself to say it out of fear of her not saying it back.

She smiled to herself as she placed her hand under his chin and lifted his head. She had also struggled with that very meaningful phrase. She didn't want to freak him out by confessing her feelings but she felt that now was the right time especially since she thought that that's what he had been intending to say. "I love you too."

He smiled elatedly, "Yeah, I love you." He pulled her into him and kissed her intensely. When they finally broke apart for air, she giggled. "I want to make love to you now," he stated in a deep, seductive voice that told her that he was aroused.

She bit down hard on her bottom lip. "I do too…but we can't…" she sighed heavily.

"We could…just here…"

She laughed, "I think that you're starting to turn into me." They both laughed as she was referring to her 'up for anything' attitude that had come to the surface late in her teen years. She kissed him sweetly. "Goodnight Reid. We'll make up for it later, I promise."

He smiled as he took her hand and entwined their fingers. "Okay." He kissed her again and began to lead her back towards the house.

**A/N: So there's a little bit of relationship fluff for you. LOL. Review!!!! :)**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: The usual thank yous. :) I appreciate the interest in this story. Hope you like this chapter. :)**

**Disclaimer: Same as always.**

**Chapter 8 – Things Get Complicated**

The current males in the house, except for Ryan, who had already volunteered to take one of the two couches, drew straws to determine the sleeping arrangements. Reid got stuck with the shortest straw meaning that he was sleeping on the other couch and Rossi drew the longest straw, meaning he got the single room. Gideon and Burke were sleeping in beds and Hotch and Morgan on cots. The four females were sharing the one room; two of them would sleep in the bed and the others on an air mattress.

Everyone was tired, so they all began to get ready for bed. Ryan gently knocked on the door of the room that had formerly belonged to his older sister and the room that he had suggested that the women stay in. Elle opened the door for him and he smiled. "Hey, I just realized that you guys only have your clothes to sleep in, so I brought you some of mine. They're just t-shirts and shorts that I don't really wear," he explained as he placed the pile of clothes on the foot of the bed.

"Thanks," Garcia replied on behalf of the group. She was pretty sure that she was developing a huge school girl crush on Emily's ex.

JJ glanced at Elle awkwardly before grabbing a t-shirt off of the pile. She was trying to completely forget that she had caught the brunette making out with one of her closest male friends. She had absolutely no idea if it was just a casual fling or something more.

Elle tried to not draw attention to the discomfort between her and JJ, a woman that she would consider a friend. So she excused herself and went to the bathroom. On her way back, she ran into Reid. "Hey," she smirked.

"Hi," he replied timidly.

She stepped up to him and whispered quickly and quietly, "We're all in the one room so if we start having a girl talk can I talk about you?"

He sighed heavily but gave in. "Okay, but don't give me away."

She smiled victoriously, "Thanks, love you."

Reid smiled happily to himself as she walked away. They were now comfortably exchanging I love you's.

Once they all returned from the bathroom and had all changed into Ryan's clothes, Garcia smiled brightly as she got settled on the bed with JJ. This left Elle and Emily on the air mattress. "Wow, Ryan smells good," Garcia laughed lightly. She was determined to start a girl talk.

Meanwhile……

Ryan and Reid began to turn the two couches into suitable beds. "Spencer Reid, right?"

"Yeah, but everyone just calls me Reid."

"So where are you from?" Ryan could tell that the FBI agent who was sharing his living room with him was no older than 25, but that shouldn't prevent them from having a decent conversation.

"Las Vegas," Reid replied routinely.

"Sweet," Ryan laughed, "I've always wanted to go there."

Reid smiled. For some reason he read Ryan Powell as an older, slightly less awkward version of himself. The man came off as shy and unassuming once you really got a chance to talk to him. Definitely not a sexual sadist. "And you grew up here?"

Ryan nodded, "Yup." He stood up straight as he had finished making up his 'bed.'

"Just to let you know, I'm not profiling you," Reid told him honestly. It might happen subconsciously sometimes, but he was not getting into a conversation just so that he could profile him.

"Thanks man."

"No problem," Reid smiled.

He and Ryan made more small talk before they decided to go to sleep.

--------------------

Ryan abruptly sat up as he heard footsteps coming down over the stairs. He smiled as he watched Emily come into view and walk into his kitchen. He quickly glanced at Reid and saw that he was sleeping before he hopped off of the couch and rushed to stand at her side.

"Hey," he whispered.

"Oh, hey," she replied in surprise. She hadn't been expecting to run into anyone. She had just wanted a glass of water. She apologized for waking him, and explained her reasons for coming downstairs.

"Its okay," he smiled.

She got a glass out of one of the cupboards and filled it up with tap water. She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye and saw that he was in only his boxers. God, he had a fabulous body. She finished her water and gently laid the glass in the sink. "Goodnight."

She turned around to walk out of the kitchen but he lightly grasped her arm. "Wait, you didn't get up for a smoke, did you?"

She smiled softly, "I quit."

"Good for you," he smiled back enthusiastically. "How long has it been?"

"Umm," she thought for a moment, "almost ten months."

His eyes quickly ran over her and he had to put every ounce of energy into containing the smirk that wanted to form on his face. She was wearing one of his t-shirts from Notre Dame that had 'The Fighting Irish' written across it in green letters, and the pair of boxers that she had silently claimed while they were dating. He loved the sight of her in his clothes and he got a small amount of satisfaction from knowing that tomorrow they would smell like her.

She had quit smoking ten months ago. He couldn't believe that he hadn't seen her in a year. It amazed him, how could he have gone without her for a year. She was a remarkable woman and he couldn't remember ever feeling this stupid. He looked out the kitchen window and sighed. "The stars are out."

"Yeah, but you can always see them in the countryside. That's why I always liked coming out here," she replied quietly.

He smiled, "And we would take the pickup to the other side of the property and lie in the cab and look up at them."

"Yeah," she responded awkwardly as she recalled the memories. She laughed lightly and ran a hand through her dark hair before changing the topic. "Was I the only one who felt a little embarrassed in the barn the other day?"

He laughed boyishly, "No, it was a little weird…I mean that was a hideout for us…"

"Do you think your Dad ever found out about that?" She asked playfully.

"Yeah, I think so," he laughed, "well, my uncle always made some joke whenever we came back so I can only assume that he put it together."

She laughed to herself before she stopped and looked down at her bare toes. They were getting along really well and she wasn't sure if she was ready to face the reality that she was falling for him again.

"Emily," he began as he noticed her silence. He followed her line of sight and looked down at her feet. "Hey Em, your ankle looks terrible."

"What?" She looked up at him in confusion; she hadn't fully been paying attention to his words. She had been lost in her thoughts.

"You're not giving it time to heal." He slowly got down onto his knees. "Here give me your foot." She sighed heavily before placing a hand on the kitchen counter to balance herself as she raised her right foot. He gently took her foot in his hands. "Your bandage needs to be tighter." As he began to unwrap her bandage, she lost her balance. He smiled as she steadied herself by placing both of her hands on his shoulders. "Are you gonna fall down again, klutz?" He asked teasingly.

"I could do some serious damage to you in this position so I wouldn't joke if I were you," she replied with a small smirk as he looked up at her.

He laughed quietly as he rewrapped her bandage. "Okay, there you go, and don't go running on it for God's sake." He placed her foot back on the ground and looked up at her. Her long, dark, wavy hair was down in her face and she looked beautiful. It also didn't hurt that because he was on his knees, he was eyelevel with her chest and he could tell that she wasn't wearing a bra. She took a step backwards and he quickly got to his feet. He had been caught staring for too long. "I'm sorry…" he began to apologize but she cut him off.

"Goodnight, Ryan," she said abruptly.

"Oh…night…" he forced a smile as she began to walk out of the kitchen. He sighed as he returned to the living room and sat down on the couch that he had been lying on.

"Trouble sleeping?"

The voice of Spencer Reid had startled him. "I didn't know that you were awake," he answered once he had crawled back under a blanket.

Reid ignored the older man's comment as his curiosity was getting the better of him. "So, you and Emily?"

"That was nothing," Ryan said defensively, "we were just talking. You don't just wash away feelings you had for five years like it was nothing."

He scoffed inwardly. He was a profiler, and he had overheard, and visually witnessed, the conversation in the kitchen, so he knew that the man across from him was lying. "How did you guys meet?"

"In line for the movies," Ryan smiled to himself. "I was standing in front of her and this guy rushed past the line, smacked into almost everyone, and sent her flying into me. I turned around, she apologized, we got to talking, and I asked her to sit with me during the movie." He paused and took a deep breath. "I fell for her right away." He took another deep breath. "Do you have a girlfriend?"

"Yes, actually," Reid replied quickly.

"How long have you been together?"

"A year, I just told her that I loved her."

"Okay well, if you guys broke up, would you be over her right away?" Ryan asked rationally.

"Well…no," Reid replied slowly.

"See, there you go!"

"But it's not the same," Reid argued timidly.

"Because we've been broken up for a year?"

Reid stopped for a moment, and knew that the answer to that question would not make the man across from him happy. "Yeah."

"Well maybe this is how it's supposed to be," Ryan started quietly. "Everything with Emily and I went at a more prolonged pace than any of my friends. We'd been dating for seven months before she met my parents, a year before we went on vacation together, and four and a half years before I proposed. We've never lived together." Reid took in his words sympathetically but he had no idea what to say. Luckily, Ryan was not finished talking. "Hey, we'd been dating almost four months before we had sex!"

"Really?" Reid blurted out.

Ryan laughed lightly, "Yeah, we took it slow. For some reason Emily can be really self-conscious about her body and her personality."

"She's very confident in her work." Ryan nodded to himself in agreement. "Are you serious about the four months thing though?" Reid asked nosily, he tried to be mature but he couldn't help himself. He was after all, only 22 years old.

"Yeah, the anticipation built up along the way so when it finally happened it was amazing." Ryan ran a hand through his hair in frustration; the very last thing that he should have been thinking about was him and Emily being together. "Okay. I'm going back to sleep."

"Okay," Reid answered. Their conversation had also resulted in a less than decent train of thought for him as well. But it was unbelievably clear to him that Ryan still had feelings for Emily. He was in a state of denial if he thought that they had been 'just talking' in the kitchen.

**A/N: The girl talk scene will be posted in the missing scenes fic entitled Uncut. I don't think that it meets the T rating. LOL. So check it out and as always, review! :)**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Thanks for the reviews! :)**

**Disclaimer: Same as always.**

**Chapter 9 – Connection Confirmed**

Ryan woke up bright and early, like always, and went about his early morning chores. He returned to the house and met agents Gideon and Rossi coming down over the stairs. "Good morning," he greeted them pleasantly.

They replied politely before following him into the kitchen. They passed the living room and saw that Reid was awake and fully dressed in his clothes from yesterday as well. "Morning Reid," Gideon said as the young man joined them in the kitchen.

"Good mornin'," he mumbled quietly. He needed coffee as soon as possible.

"I don't know what I can do about breakfast for eleven people but I'll try," Ryan stated, laughing lightly. "The coffee is ready."

"Thanks," Reid replied gratefully as he accepted a mug from Ryan.

Within a half an hour, everyone was downstairs and in the kitchen. All of the men were fully dressed while the women had changed into their pants but they were still wearing the t-shirts that they had slept in. For breakfast they had a choice of toast, bacon, cereal, bagels, coffee, and tea. But it was not the source of food that provided the discomfort. The source of tension was coming from the occupants of the kitchen themselves.

JJ was particularly feeling like she was stuck between a rock and a hard place. After their girl talk last night and Elle's revelations about her boyfriend, she was wondering if she should tell Reid about the brunette's infidelity. She was also contemplating whether or not she should confront Elle about it before talking to Reid. She really did not want her friend to get hurt, and that was a definite possibility if he had feelings for Elle and she had a serious boyfriend. The blonde was also feeling a little exposed because of her sudden attraction to Gary Burke. Last night when he had brought them extra pillows he had looked quite delectable without a shirt on.

Reid sipped on his coffee as he looked around the room, judging by everyone's reactions when they said hello to him this morning, JJ had yet to tell anyone about what she witnessed last night. His major concerns, however, were directed toward the man that he had bonded with last night. He wondered if Ryan was going to admit his feelings for Emily to himself before they all left.

Elle felt extremely selfish for having overwhelming feelings of lust this morning but she couldn't help it. If it wasn't for the fact that two young women were dead and another two were still out there waiting to be saved, she would feel extremely frustrated for not being able to be alone with her boyfriend. She tried to keep her glances towards him as subtle as possible.

Emily finished her cup of coffee and laid the mug in the sink. She had eaten her breakfast as quickly as possible. The least amount of time she spent around Ryan the better. She had had a very inappropriate dream about him last night. She blamed it on the fact that she had been sleeping in his house, in his clothes! Also, the encounter that they had had in his kitchen in the middle of the night hadn't helped either.

"I'm going to go get ready," she announced before leaving the kitchen.

Ryan sighed inwardly as she left. He had dreamt about her last night. He made excuses to himself that it was because that she was in his house and wearing his clothes and she looked better than ever. He needed a cold shower.

Garcia looked around the kitchen curiously. She saw various expressions that portrayed frustration, nervousness, irritation, and indecision, but she felt perkier than usual this morning. Their talk last night had been extremely informative for her. She was quite protective of Reid. He uses his intelligence as a shield but underneath he's shy, sweet, and vulnerable and she never wanted him to have his heart broken by a woman. Fortunately, solely based on the way that Elle talked about her boyfriend, he was in no danger of that happening.

After breakfast, Ryan watched the government employees file out of the kitchen and return upstairs, as they were preparing to leave. Emily was the first one to come down the stairs. She walked out the front door and stood on the front patio. He was about to follow her but changed his mind as he saw that Agent Hotchner had a similar idea.

Emily turned her head as she heard footsteps coming up behind her. She saw that it was Hotch so she gave him a small smile. "Hey, are we getting ready to leave?"

He nodded, "Yeah, they're just finishing getting ready and then we're back to Springfield." He paused. "We're no closer to cracking this case," he added.

She sighed heavily, "Yeah I know."

"You seem tense."

She shrugged but then smiled cheekily. "Aren't you?"

He laughed lightly before stepping up behind her and placing his hands on her shoulders. He felt shivers race down his spine as she let out a low moan. She tilted her head forward and closed her eyes as he began to knead her shoulders. He had large, rough hands from firing round after round at targets, but he was being gentle.

They both snapped out of their trance when they heard someone clear their throat. Hotch raised his head and refused to let any reaction be expressed on his face. "Ready, Dave?"

Rossi nodded as he watched Emily subtly step away from Hotch. He wasn't exactly sure what he had just walked in on but he had the feeling that whatever it was, he wasn't supposed to see it.

Emily cursed silently to herself. Just when she thought she knew where her feelings lay, Aaron Hotchner came back into the picture.

--------------------

Gideon and some of the others graciously thanked Ryan Powell. They had severely imposed on the young man's life and he definitely hadn't needed to offer them a place to stay during the storm. They returned to their hotel in Springfield and decided to get some rest and freshen up before returning to the local field office. They were, after all, all wearing the same clothes that they had worn the day before.

After his shower, Reid made his way up the second floor and knocked on Elle's door. She opened the door to her hotel room smiling. "Hey. Come in."

He stepped inside her hotel room and greeted her with a kiss. "I have something to tell you," he grinned.

"I have something to tell you too."

He raised an eyebrow questioningly; he recognized the naughty expression on her face. "Okay, you first."

She smiled brightly as she wrapped both of her arms around his lower back. "I talked about you last night…a lot…"

"Ellllle," he whined. He knew exactly what that phrase meant; she had revealed intimate details about their bedroom activities. She had been quite open with her friends in Seattle so when he finally got the opportunity to meet them and have lunch, they had smirked at him during the whole meal.

"I'm sorry!" She apologized through giggles. "I love bragging about you."

His lips quirked upwards and a small smile broke through on his face. He lowered his head and kissed her quickly on the lips. "Do you want to hear my news?" She nodded quickly.

"Ryan and I got into a conversation last night and I think that he's still in love with Emily."

Elle looked at her boyfriend sceptically. "What makes you say that?"

Blush tinged his cheeks. "Because he talks about her the way that I talk about you."

She knew that it made her overly sentimental, sappy, and corny but his words almost made her melt. He was just genuinely and sincerely sweet. She kissed him quickly. "Okay, you should probably get back to your room now."

He nodded in agreement. "Okay, I'll see you soon. Love you," he smiled brightly.

She smiled back at him as she moved towards the door and opened it for him. "I love you too."

Reid walked down the hallway towards the stairwell and practically hopped down over the stairs. He was so happy. He shot JJ a bright smile as he passed her on the way to his room.

JJ sighed heavily as she met Reid; she knew that he had just come for Elle's room. She mustered up all her courage and bypassed the vending machine that had been her initial destination and opened the door to the stairwell. She reached Elle's room and knocked nervously.

The brunette answered the door and stared at her visitor in surprise. She had expected it to be Reid again. "Oh, hey JJ."

"Hey Elle, can I come in?"

"Yeah," Elle smiled as she allowed JJ to enter her room. "So what's up?"

"So last night when I saw you and Reid…and then when we were talking and you brought up your boyfriend…he's my friend and I don't want to see him get hurt." JJ felt incredibly anxious, she had no idea how Elle would react to her accusation.

But Elle smiled to herself as she listened to the blonde talk. "JJ, its okay, Reid is my boyfriend."

"What?" JJ asked in shock.

Elle laughed lightly, "Yeah, we've been together for a year. We got together after we got out of the safe house."

"So everything that you said last night was about Reid?" Elle nodded. "Well that's a relief." JJ released the breath that she had been holding in before realization hit her. "Wait! Everything that you said last night was about Reid! So I spent a brief period of time wishing that I could sleep with Reid?"

Elle laughed, "Yeah, I guess."

JJ laughed along with her. "Okay, that had been eating away at me all day." Elle smiled. "So you guys are a secret?"

"Yeah for now. Well now that you know, I'd say that we'll tell everyone soon."

Meanwhile……

Morgan picked the spare key to Emily's room up off of his bedside table. It had become a habit for him and Emily to swap room keys whenever they got an away case. He guessed it was because they both trusted each other in case of an emergency.

He left his room and began to walk down the hallway towards hers. He wanted to see how her ankle was doing. He used the key in his hand instead of knocking but was certainly not expecting what he found. He had caught his best friend in the middle of changing her clothes. She was wearing only her underwear, blue bra and panties, and quickly used the t-shirt that she had just taken off to cover herself up a bit.

"Derek! Jesus! This is why we're only supposed to use the keys in life and death situations, any other time we're supposed to knock!"

He acknowledged her words but he simply closed the door behind him. Something had caught his eye, and he didn't mean that in a sexually suggestive manner. "Em, move the shirt again for a sec."

An eyebrow rose quickly. "Excuse me?"

He couldn't help but laugh. "I swear that I'm not checking you out."

"Okay but if you try anything…"

"I won't," he said defensively. She gave him a look of warning before tossing the t-shirt aside. "Em what's that?" He asked curiously as he gestured towards her right hip.

She looked down. "My birthmark," she answered slowly.

He looked up at her and she could see that his eyes had widened in fear. "Its shaped like a star…just like our vics…"

**A/N: Soooo, what are your thoughts? Review!! :)**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Thanks for the reviews. Hope you like the update! :)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds or any of its characters. I also do not own the lyrics that I used for the title of this chapter. They belong to Matchbox 20. :)**

**Chapter 10 – Can You Tell Me What Was Really Special About Me All This Time? **

"Derek, that's not even funny," Emily replied sternly before grabbing a fresh t-shirt and pulling it over her head.

He stood up straight and took a deep breath. "I wouldn't joke about that, and you've never noticed?"

"I didn't exactly take the time to size up the similarities between me and the victims!" She answered as she grabbed a pair of jeans out of her suitcase.

Morgan snatched the case file off of her bedside table and took out the photograph of Abigail Foster's right hip which clearly showed the star that the unsub had carved into her skin. He gently pulled Emily in front of the mirror and raised her t-shirt. He placed the photo next to her hip so that she could compare. "Do you see it?" He asked softly.

She nodded slowly. She had a feeling that she had seen the resemblance before but was just afraid to admit it. She wanted to believe that this was a freaky coincidence. No way was this case about her! "Yeah, I see it," she stated quietly.

He sighed heavily. He did not want his best friend to be the unsub's obsession. He would become more protective over her than usual and he knew that that would not sit well with her. Emily Prentiss did not like being coddled. She told him time and time again that she can take care of herself, that she had been doing it for years. She was Miss Independent through and through.

"Come on, we have to tell the others."

She laughed lightly, "After I put some clothes on."

He grinned, "Right, and nice underwear by the way." He laughed as she repeatedly struck him with the pair of jeans she had in her hands. "Okay! Okay! I'm closing my eyes." He covered his eyes with a hand and she quickly got dressed. "Nice legs Prentiss," he joked. She smacked him hard across the back of the head as she pushed him out into the hotel hallway.

Morgan moved to knock on all of the doors surrounding him, so that included alerting Reid, Burke, JJ, Hotch, and Gideon. Garcia and Rossi were around the corner and Elle was on the second floor. The doors to every room, except JJ's, opened instantly.

"What is it?" Hotch asked urgently as he stepped out into the hallway.

As if they were summoned telepathically, Garcia and Rossi, followed by JJ and Elle, came walking down the hallway towards them.

"We've found our connection," Morgan stated glumly. Reid looked panicked as he turned to his supervisors. He did not want to hear what was coming. "Show them Em."

Emily turned slightly so that her right side was visible to the group. She tentatively raised her t-shirt and pushed her jeans down just enough to reveal her birthmark.

"Damn it," Hotch said angrily.

"Oh my God," JJ gasped. She had spent a good amount of time so far on this case working victimology and those crime scene photos were burned into her brain. Emily's birthmark was an exact match with the markings on the victims.

"What is it?" Garcia asked confused. She noticed that everyone around her either looked frightened or angry.

"Emily has the unsub's signature," Rossi stated simply. "This confirms why he wanted us to go back to Powell Farm."

"What do you mean?" Emily asked curiously.

JJ looked at her guilty. "We found pictures of you two on Ryan's computer."

"And your engagement ring in his room," Reid added quietly.

"We developed the theory then that you were the connection but we didn't want to propose it until we were sure…now we are," Hotch admitted.

Gideon thought for a moment before speaking, "Let's talk this out." He turned and walked back into his room and everybody else followed.

They all managed to find a place to sit somewhere around the room and then there was a brief silence before Morgan bravely spoke up. "So this may be obsessional."

Rossi nodded and added, "Sexually so."

Emily shifted, a small gesture but one that suggested to the profilers that she was becoming increasingly uncomfortable. She truly did not understand why someone would develop a sexual obsession with her. But a few of the men in the room certainly understood why.

Reid processed facts about the case in his head. "Something significant happened about three months ago, that's when he abducted his first victim."

Everyone turned their attention to Emily. "I have a routine," she replied. "I've lived in Chicago for a year now…haven't been on a vacation…I can't think of anything in particular."

"Well what about your birthmark," Elle began, "who would know about that?"

Emily sighed in frustration. "A lot of people, if they were paying attention." Garcia looked at her in shock and she couldn't help but smile. "Not like that, I swam competitively for eight years, through high school and university."

"We also have to take into account the fact that he may be stalking Ryan Powell as well. He knew that he still had the engagement ring," Burke pointed out.

Gideon nodded in agreement. "Who knew of your relationship?"

"Everyone that we know, pretty much," Emily answered quickly. "And well others, mother published our engagement." Nobody missed the subtle eye roll that came after her sentence.

"Em, could it be someone who works for one of your parents?" Morgan asked tentatively. He was aware of Emily's relationship with her folks. Fortunately, it had improved in the past year but she had gone through hell with them in the past.

"Its highly unlikely, mother is in Europe and father lives in New York, and I can't say that I'm incredibly close with either one of them."

"Siblings?" JJ asked. Though she did not want to refer to one of their own as a victim, she was experienced with this type of victim interview.

"I have an older brother, Peter. He lives in California; we talk at least three times a week."

Hotch ran a hand through his dark hair in frustration. He knew that this was a relatively pointless exercise, especially when Emily hadn't had any time to think any of this over. He realized that right now, even though she'd never confess to it, she was still in shock or denial. Besides, he could only imagine how many people an FBI agent, who also happens to be the daughter of a politician, comes in contact with in the run of a day. "How about we divide the labour?" He suggested.

Gideon nodded, "Reid, you stay here with Morgan and Prentiss, and the rest of us will head back to the Springfield field office."

Everybody quickly filed out of the room until it was just Reid, Morgan, and Emily. Reid grabbed the pen and notepad off of the nearby coffee table and shifted into a comfortable writing position.

"Do you want to start with all of the men that I've had in my life?" Emily asked speculatively.

Reid nodded, "Yeah."

"Okay so there's my father, my brother, Ryan…"

The list ended up being quite long. Amongst others, it included three other ex-boyfriends, male agents from both the St. Louis and Chicago field offices, including Morgan, the maintenance guy for her apartment building, her mechanic, most of her mother's staff, friends from boarding school, university, the FBI Academy, and her former co-workers in San Diego.

Reid had learned quite a lot about Emily Prentiss. He was now aware that she had been around the world. She had attended high school at a boarding school in California and then did undergraduate degrees in Forensic Science and Linguistics at Yale before earning her Masters degrees at the University of Chicago. She worked in the crime lab for the San Diego Police Department before applying to the FBI. He also learned that she owned the whole apartment building in which she lived.

But the one thing that he found the most interesting and that he identified with the most was that she graduated high school a year early. She, like him, was used to being one of the smartest people in any room. But there was one other thing that was making him curious and he was dying to ask her about it.

So just before she left the room, Morgan ahead of her, he got up the courage to speak. "Emily, can I ask you something?"

"Case related or…?" She replied with a question as she noticed the uneasy look on the young man's face.

"Its not really case related…I just wanted to know…when you said that you're not close to either of your parents…why?"

"My mother's a career politician, it was…," she paused for a moment, "…difficult, to grow up in that environment where your children are regarded as an inconvenience because of your career. But thanks to what happened in D.C. last year, my mother and I are actually beginning to work things out."

"And what about your father?" This was what he really wanted to know.

"I worshipped my father for the first sixteen years of my life. I saw him as the glue that kept our family together for all those years and then I found out that he had been having an affair. So my parents got a divorce that, as far and my brother and I were concerned, was a long time coming. But after the divorce, he only made an effort to reach out to us on birthdays and holidays. The day that I realized that he didn't care anymore, I didn't care anymore," she told him honestly.

He looked down at his feet and nodded to himself. "My Dad," he stopped to clear his throat, "left me and my Mom when I was ten and I haven't heard from him since and until now, I was yet to find someone who felt the same way that I do." As he spoke he was aware that Elle was the only other person that he had had this conversation with.

She smiled genuinely. "Anytime you wanna talk we can get together and complain about our parents," she said laughing.

He laughed along with her as he followed her out of Gideon's hotel room. "Thanks Emily."

"No problem," she smiled.

"Oh, one more thing!" Reid called out as her hand was turning the doorknob to her own hotel room.

"Yeah Reid?"

"Prentiss, is that your father's surname?" He asked awkwardly.

She shook her head. "Mother didn't change her name when she got married, because of her career, so about a year after the divorce my brother and I took our mother's maiden name."

"So what's your father's surname?"

"Black," she answered before smiling softly at him and disappearing into her room.

Reid smiled to himself; he couldn't even explain the relief that he felt from getting that off of his chest. Elle had once joked that based on the time that she had spent with Emily in the safe house, she felt that the woman was the female version of him. He remembered laughing at her and calling the idea absurd. But now he was beginning to see it…at least a little bit.

Meanwhile……

Emily sighed as she collapsed onto her bed. Explaining to Reid the reason why she wasn't that close with her parents had brought some unexpected feelings to the surface. She still remembered when her father left, the day that triggered her rebellious stage. She felt extremely nervous about the fact that this case now directly involved her. She never, for one moment, regretted any decision that she had made in the past twelve years. She always looked at her life's changing moment as the day that she had stepped onto the Ivy League grounds of Yale University for the first time. That day she had started off with a clean slate. However, she had certainly done some things in her teen years that she was not proud of and she hoped now, more than ever, that it was not coming back to haunt her. Her life was not the only one that was at risk anymore.

**A/N: Review!!!! :)**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: Thanks to reviewers and my beta! I seem to be getting a lot of alerts but not as many reviews :( You can change this :)**

**Disclaimer: Same as always.**

**Chapter 11 – Problems Away From the Case**

Burke sighed in frustration. "Is there even any point in having Garcia do a search?" He asked the group. He was referring to the fact that, because of their new information, there was a possibility that their unsub has been apprehended before. "Even if we narrow it down to his living in Chicago then we'll still probably get thousands of names because he only developed his signature with Abigail Foster and Katrina Miller. We've already had Garcia do a search and she couldn't find anything else for us."

"He's right," Hotch agreed. "We need more."

"If he has been stalking Emily then the two comfort zones of Missouri and Illinois makes sense. Maybe he moved when Emily moved?" Elle purposed.

"That's definitely possible," Gideon said as he agreed with the brunette.

"Committed stalker," Rossi commented.

"And the fact that he may be a sexual sadist and a committed stalker means that he's of very high intelligence and he has a plan." Hotch stated before adding, "As of right now, he's in complete control. He's not devolving and he's not in a psychotic break."

"We have to figure out what his plan is," Rossi said quietly.

"Hey guys," Garcia started tentatively, "if he's been stalking Emily does that mean that it's possible that he's watching her now?"

Burke looked at Hotch and Gideon before answering, "Yeah, that is possible."

"And if he wanted us to go back to Powell Farm, then he wanted us to find out that Emily is the connection so he knows that we know that he's watching. What does that mean?" JJ asked confused. "That he's enjoying the thrill of being ahead of us?"

Hotch nodded, "Or that he wants to be caught so that he can take his credit."

"We need to figure this guy out," Burke exclaimed in irritation.

Gideon took a deep breath before saying, "How about we get some dinner?"

Well at least that was one question that they could answer confidently. They called Reid and had him, Morgan, and Emily meet them at a Thai restaurant between the field office and the hotel.

They sat at a long table at the back of the restaurant and the meal was on the verge of being very awkward. Most of them were in deep thought; either that or they were too frustrated to speak. Gideon had already decided that they would head back to the hotel afterwards and then hit the ground running early tomorrow morning.

They returned to their hotel with full stomachs and went to their respective hotel rooms.

Elle changed into a pair of sweat pants and a bright green t-shirt with the logo of her former residence house at Princeton across the front and the names of all of her housemates on the back. She walked down to the first floor and knocked on Reid's door.

"Good evening," Burke greeted her smiling as he pulled the door open and allowed her to step inside the hotel room.

"Hey," she smiled back. She immediately walked towards Reid's bed where he was already comfortable under the covers. "Are you guys going to bed?"

"No, Reid was just cold," Burke answered laughing as he took a seat on his own bed.

Elle shot Reid a sly smile. "You're such a baby." She teased as she slipped under the covers and sat beside him. "So did you find out anything about Emily that might help us?"

Reid shook his head, "Not really. She's trying to remember anything of possible significance that happened three or four months ago that could be his trigger. But what he perceived as significant could have been minuscule to Emily."

"Like?" Elle asked curiously.

"Maybe she cut her hair or changed where she shopped or…" he paused, "…there's a lot of possibilities."

"Yeah, too many," Burke grumbled. Thinking back on his previous cases with the BAU, he had never felt this much behind the unsub. "I'm going to go and brush my teeth." He got up off of his bed and walked into the bathroom.

Once the bathroom door shut, Elle turned to Reid and kissed him quickly on the lips. "Do you want to do something?"

"What?" He asked tentatively as he raised an eyebrow.

"We're under blankets and I can distract Burke and I'm not wearing any underwear."

He chuckled quietly, "Elle…"

"You know that I'm not too proud to beg," she said grinning. His laugh was cut off by another intense kiss. "Please," she whispered seductively.

He continued to chuckle as his hand moved down her back and reached the waistband of her pants. He smiled as he slipped his hand inside and discovered that she was not lying about her lack of underwear. He removed his hand as he heard Burke fiddle with the lock on the bathroom door. His friend and roommate emerged and walked back to his bed.

Elle rolled over so that she faced Burke and her back was to Reid. She smiled inwardly as she felt her boyfriend sneak his hand inside her pants again. "So Burke, what do you think our unsub is after?"

--------------------

"Well I should probably go back to my own room now and let you guys sleep." Elle declared as she stretched her arms up above her head. She felt incredibly giddy and she knew why. Her boyfriend was incredible with his hands.

"I'll walk you to your room," Reid said quickly as he scrambled out of his bed.

"Thanks." She smiled politely as she got to her feet and began to walk towards the door. "I'll see you tomorrow morning Burke."

"See ya," the older man replied.

Elle left the room first and Reid followed her, closing the door behind him. She waited until they were in the stairwell before she took his hand and entwined their fingers. "That was amazing."

"Thank you," he smirked. He brought both of their hands towards his face and kissed hers softly.

"I need to talk to you about something."

She was changing the topic abruptly so he instantly became concerned. "What is it?"

She waited until they reached her room and pulled him inside before she spoke. "JJ knows about us."

"What? How?" He squeaked.

"I told her," she answered calmly. She did not like how panicked he sounded.

"Why?" He asked quickly.

"Because she saw us behind the shed and then she heard me talk about my boyfriend so she thought that I was cheating on him with you and she confronted me about it," she explained.

"So you told her?"

"Well yeah!" She answered in irritation. Why was he acting like it was critical to keep their relationship a secret. They didn't work in the same unit of the FBI, nor the same field office. They lived and worked on opposite sides of the country for God's sake! The fraternization rules were not an issue for them. He was confusing her. "You told me that you love me," she said quietly.

"I do. What does that have to do with this?" He questioned in bewilderment.

"It has everything to do with this! We're obviously serious now so why do you still want to keep us a secret?" He remained silent and it caused her anger to rise. She crossed her arms under her breasts and calmly ordered him out of her room. "I think that you should be getting back to your own room."

"Elle…" he was going to start to plead but she cut him off.

"We'll talk about this later."

"I think that we should talk about it now," he argued as he stepped up to her.

She shook her head. "No, I want to go to bed."

He sighed, "Okay, I'll see you tomorrow morning. Sweet dreams." She kissed him unenthusiastically on the cheek and he frowned. "I love you."

"Love you too," she replied half-heartedly.

He sighed again as he pulled open the door of her hotel room and left. He stood in the hallway staring at her door for a moment before turning and walking away. He loved Elle but he sucked at relationships.

**A/N: So that was a little more character. Review! :)**


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: Same thank yous as always! :) Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: Same as always.**

**Chapter 12 – The Call In The Middle Of the Night**

No one was sleeping. Everyone was awake for different reasons. They were supposed to be getting their rest so that they could get to work early in the morning, but FBI agents were known as insomniacs.

--------------------

David Rossi may be retired but old habits die hard. He sat in the chair in the corner of his hotel room with his small notebook in his lap. He reread his case notes for the thousandth time and let out a heavy sigh. They were dealing with a stalking sexual sadist. Something was off about this guy. Nothing in their profile pointed to that but it was just his gut feeling. They desperately needed him to slip up. They needed to force his hand. But how could they do that?

He picked up the remote control for the television and decided to give his mind a break. He began to flick through the channels but hardly anything entertaining came on at almost two o'clock in the morning.

--------------------

Hotch sat up in his bed and leaned back against the headboard. He had tried to get to sleep but it was useless. Thoughts of women were filling his mind. This case was giving him an excuse to constantly think about Emily Prentiss and he did not like it.

At first, he had been naïve enough to consider the possibility that he had been the unsub's trigger but that wouldn't fit with the timeline. The unsub had abducted his first victim three months ago and he and Emily had slept together six months ago. However, it had happened in Chicago so it was still possible that it had agitated the unsub.

He sighed as he picked his cell phone up off of the bedside table. It was late but he felt the urge to call Haley. He had found the time to call his wife everyday since they left Virginia; he just hoped that it wasn't out of guilt.

"Hi honey, I know that it's early and I'm sorry but I just wanted to hear your voice."

"Its okay baby," she replied sleepily. "I'm happy to hear your voice too."

--------------------

Elle got in bed and lay down, simply staring up at the ceiling. This case was frustrating and her boyfriend was frustrating. It's not like they hadn't fought before, because they had. In fact, they had fought very intensely just four months ago to the point were she had broken up with him.

_Elle picked up her phone and dialled quickly. She had to call Reid, she felt terrible. She smiled to herself as he answered the phone simply by saying his last name. "Hey baby."_

"_Oh, hey!" He replied quickly. He sat down on his living room sofa and ran a hand through his hair. His hands were beginning to sweat._

"_I really need to tell you something," she began nervously._

"_Okay…"_

"_Last night, after we talked, and I said that I needed a little bit of a break from us…"_

"_Yeah," he said anxiously._

_She took a deep breath. "I went out with my friends and I met a guy at a bar and we kissed. But I left right after because all I could think about was you! And I just had to tell you to get it off my chest. I'm sorry, can you forgive me?"_

"_Of course I can," he answered automatically. He was feeling extremely guilty. Here she was pouring her heart out and begging for his forgiveness because she had briefly kissed another guy when he had woken up this morning in bed with a woman that didn't even know his last name. "Elle, I need to tell you something too," he said after mustering up all of his courage._

"_What? Did you kiss someone too?" She joked. The silence on the other end of the line made her whole body tense. "Reid? Spencer?"_

"_Elle, I'm _so_ sorry…"_

"_What did you do?" She asked a little louder than necessary._

"_I slept with someone else," he confessed almost inaudibly. He really wished that they were in the same room right now and not on the phone. She could easily hang up on him at any moment. "Elle, I really am sorry. I didn't know what you wanted and I thought that you didn't want to see me anymore so I was really upset so I went to the bar a couple blocks away and I guess that I overestimated how much liquor I could hold and I was talking to this girl and…"_

_She cut off his long-winded ramble, "Was she good?"_

"_What?" He asked confused._

"_How was the sex?" She asked calmly but he could hear the anger in her voice._

"_It doesn't matter."_

"_Yes, it does," she argued. "The guy I met was a very good kisser."_

_He felt his jealous streak kick in. He did not like the idea of other men looking, kissing, or touching what was his. "Well, she was fine," he finally answered._

"_Well it's nice to know that at least you got a good lay out of it." She sighed, "I always thought of you as someone that would never…ever…hurt me but I can't stop picturing you without another woman. I think we're done."_

"_Elle, wait! Please!"_

"_Bye." She did not wait for him to reply before she hung up her phone and turned it off. _

The very next day, she had arrived home from work to find her apartment unlocked. She had slowly and carefully walked into her room, with her weapon drawn, to find Reid sitting on the edge of her bed. He had been let inside her home by one of her best friends who lived down the hall and who just so happened to have the spare key to her place. He had given her the cheesiest, yet most sincere, speech she had ever heard and a promise ring.

She looked down at the ring, which she wore on the ring finger of her right hand, and remembered what he had said. He said that he didn't want the ring to just be a promise that they would get married somebody but a promise that he would never lie to her, or cheat on her, or hurt her, ever again.

She really had to confront him about breaking his promise.

--------------------

Reid lay awake in his bed. He and Burke had been talking but the older man had finally been able to acquiesce to sleep. While he was still awake, he felt terrible. He needed to explain himself to Elle. Of course he wanted everyone to know that they were a couple but he was afraid that they wouldn't believe him. After all, why would she want him?

He was bordering on self-loathing when his roommate provided some much needed amusement. He rolled over in his bed to see that Burke was lying on his side and hugging into his pillow. "JJ," he mumbled sleepily with a lopsided grin on his face.

Reid suppressed his laughter. Burke was talking in his sleep. The two men had been sharing rooms together ever since Burke joined the BAU and Reid had heard him talk in his sleep many times, usually during a nightmare. But he was certainly not in the middle of a nightmare tonight. On the contrary, he seemed to be dreaming about a certain blonde, media liaison.

"JJ, you're so soft…"

Reid laughed into his pillow. He certainly had ammunition to tease the older man, and for the time being it took his mind off the case and his relationship problems with Elle.

--------------------

Emily was sitting on the hotel bed with a notepad in her lap and a pen in her hand. She was trying to remember every detail of the last three months of her life. She had started off by listing all of the cases that she had worked. But after that the list had gotten more challenging to complete. Like she had told everyone, she had a routine and she hadn't been on a vacation in a long time.

"Oh! Peter visited on the third," she spoke aloud to herself as she penciled in another event on her timeline.

She stretched out her legs and felt a shot of pain reach her ankle. It wasn't healed just yet, but it was getting better. She still had it wrapped in a bandage for cautionary purposes.

She sighed heavily as she tossed her notepad on the bedside table. She couldn't think of anything else. She wasn't that interesting of a person. She survived because of her routine and there was nothing that a stalker loved more than routine. The funny thing is that she's a trained FBI agent and she never once had the feeling that somebody was watching her. Even before the FBI Academy she had been taught by her mother's security detail to be suspicious, cautious, and paranoid. It was bred into her. She was not a victim. She would pick up on someone that she did not know appearing at places that she frequented. This wasn't some stranger. This was someone that she interacted with on a weekly or even daily basis.

She grabbed the notepad again and began writing down a list of all of the men that she would consider acquaintances that, at some point, had shown romantic interest in her.

--------------------

Morgan had decided to work through his anxieties the way that he normally did…by working out until he reached the point where he thought that he could not longer move. He was currently on push-up number 87. He also knew that by the time that he finished and took a hot shower, his body would be so worn out that he would sleep like a baby.

But this time his mind was unable to focus on the pain that he felt in his arms. He was still thinking about the case. He was still thinking about those two young women that were still being held by the unsub somewhere and he was still thinking about his best friend.

As he achieved push-up number 100, he wondered what Emily was thinking. She seemed relatively calm about it all, which did not surprise him in the least. She was the daughter of a politician; she was used to wearing a mask. But he was concerned. He knew that if it came down to it, he would put his life on the line to stop an unsub and he would definitely do the same to protect Emily.

His arms gave way at push-up number 213 and he hit the hotel room floor with a loud 'thud'. He knew that it was time to hit the shower. He willed himself to his feet and slowly made his way into the bathroom. He stripped down and stepped under the hot spray.

When he finished his shower, he changed into a pair of FBI issued sweat pants and crawled into bed.

--------------------

Garcia sat on her bed in her fleece pyjamas with her precious laptop in her lap. Something about the unsubs phone call had been annoying her so she had decided to filter it. She was wearing her large earphones on her head and she was halfway through the process. She had heard "If you think that they're unrelated then you've missed something on Powell Farm" at least 20 times by now but the background noise still wasn't any clearer.

She finished putting it through all of her at hand resources and decided that it was time to give it a final listen. "What the hell was that?" She asked herself after listening to the recording. She turned up the volume and listened to it once more. "Is that…a horse?" She looked up and saw her own puzzled expression in the mirror. She played it again and came to a final decision. It was definitely the sound of a horse. It was a loud 'nay'.

"Who owns horses?" She spoke aloud to herself again. "Farmers and rich people," she laughed lightly. There were thousands of farms in Missouri, especially the region of Missouri that Ryan Powell lived in, but she also knew that Emily's family owned horses. The brunette had told her when they had lived in the safe house in Washington D.C. that she had ridden horses her whole life and she absolutely loved it.

She yawned loudly and then shut down her computer. She was going to turn in and tell the team about her discovery in the morning.

--------------------

JJ panted as her head fell back onto the pillow at the top of the bed. She felt her whole body flush as she realized that she had just done something that she hadn't in a long time because she had been thinking about Burke. She had thought about his intelligence and his dedication to his job, their cases, and the victims. About his skilful play at the annual BAU charity basketball game. Then she had thought about his ripped torso and strong arms, his perfect haircut, and tight butt.

Although she was very physically attracted to him and he really did have some endearing qualities, he was a womanizer and a flirt. He could come off as a condescending jerk and an asshole at times too.

Why did she do this to herself? She always fell for the wrong type of guy. She wanted a nice, sweet guy who could take care of her, as clichéd as that sounded. She wanted someone who she could come home to, someone who would play Scrabble and watch TV with her. She wanted someone to bring back to Pennsylvania who could kick around the soccer ball with her nieces and nephews. She wanted to find the "marrying type."

The man that she had broken up with before attending the FBI Academy, the one that she had been dating while she was in the safe house in D.C., had been the wrong type of guy too. He had been controlling, arrogant, and demanding. But he had offered excitement and a strong sexual attraction and that's what she had fallen for. She really didn't want to make that mistake again and that's why a voice in her brain was yelling at her for drooling over Burke.

She got up off of her bed and walked into the bathroom. She didn't want to think about it anymore. She was going to get ready for bed.

--------------------

Gideon sat at the desk in his hotel room with a doggy bag from the Thai restaurant and a cup of coffee in front of him. He was redundantly writing up case notes. They needed a break in the case he was just afraid to get it because it most likely meant another body.

He froze as his cell phone rang. A call in the middle of the night was never a good sign. He picked his phone up off of the desk and pressed the 'On' button. "Gideon."

He sighed heavily after hearing the reason for Agent Clark's late call. They had just found another body.

**A/N: Review!!! :)**


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: The usual thank yous: to reviewers and my beta. :)**

**Disclaimer: Same as always.**

**Chapter 13 – Fish Out Of Water**

Gideon jumped up out of bed and hit number one on his speed dial.

"_Hello_," was the very alert response that he received. Someone else wasn't sleeping.

"JJ, call the team and tell them to meet in the lobby in ten minutes."

"_Yes sir_." She responded without any further questions and ended the call.

Gideon made quick calls to Elle, Emily, Morgan, and Dave before pulling on some fresh clothes. He rushed down to the lobby and within minutes everyone else joined him.

"What's going on?" Hotch asked urgently. The younger man had dishevelled hair but he was wearing a pressed, black suit, light blue dress shirt, and black tie. He looked professional…tired, but professional.

"Agent Clark just called; he received a call from his field office, they found another body," Gideon answered sadly. "We're going down to St. Louis; the Springfield agents are going to meet us there."

Without any further conversation, they left the hotel, divided themselves up into two groups of five, and boarded the SUVs.

Hotch drove the first vehicle with Garcia in the passenger seat and Gideon, Elle, and Emily in the back.

"Do they know who it is?" Emily asked anxiously.

Gideon shook his head. "It was local police, they couldn't make a positive ID, and the St. Louis agents were just leaving to head to the crime scene when Agent Clark called."

"So we don't know anything?" Elle asked in frustration.

Gideon nodded unhappily. "We just know that another body has been found. It could be unrelated to our case."

Emily sighed heavily, if it was Courtney Piercey or Leona Murphy she didn't know what she would do.

"Hey guys," Garcia started hesitantly.

"Yeah, Garcia?" Hotch encouraged.

"I was filtering the unsub's call last night and I could have swore that I heard a horse in the background."

Emily's head snapped up and she looked at Garcia frightened. "What?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure that there was a horse making noise in the background when the unsub called us," she repeated slowly. She realized that the news probably did not sound good to Emily. "But we've ruled Ryan out as a suspect, right?" She asked worriedly.

Hotch risked a quick glance at Gideon in the rear-view mirror before concentrating on the road ahead. "Nothing in Ryan Powell's behaviour pointed to him being the unsub," he said sternly.

The rest of the drive was silent and Garcia felt incredibly awkward. She noticed that Emily and Gideon were scribbling on notepads with very determined looks on their faces while Hotch was focused on driving. More specifically, she couldn't help but notice Elle's uncharacteristic quietness. The brunette had only said one thing since they had gathered in the hotel lobby and she had politely said hello. She wondered if something was wrong and if it had to do with Reid.

Meanwhile……

Morgan drove the second vehicle with Rossi in the passenger seat and JJ sitting awkwardly between Burke and Reid in the back.

JJ squirmed uncomfortably in the middle seat. She felt strange being sandwiched between Burke and Reid. She shifted a little more towards Reid as she was trying to create as much space as possible between her and the object of her fantasies. She could hear his calm, controlled breathing, and she could smell his intoxicating cologne. It was almost overpowering. She decided to distract herself by starting polite, unrelated to the case, conversation. "So how did you sleep, Reid?"

"Pretty good, actually," he chuckled.

Burke turned and looked at him curiously. "What are you laughing about?"

"Nothing," he shrugged. Reid noticed that his roommate was eying him suspiciously but he decided that he would tease him later. He wasn't even sure if Burke remembered dreaming about the blonde sitting beside him.

JJ shifted again, "So we don't know who they found?"

"We're going to the St. Louis field office and hopefully, by the time that we get there, the ME will have made a positive ID," Rossi answered slowly.

--------------------

They arrived at the St. Louis field office and were met by a restless, dishevelled, and overtired Agent Clark. "Good, you're here!"

"We drove as fast as we could," Hotch said as friendly as possible.

"Did they identify the body?" Gideon asked quickly as they began to walk into the building.

Clark nodded sadly, "We've confirmed our original suspicion," he took a brief pause, "its Leona Murphy."

Emily stopped in her tracks but a gentle hand on the small of her back signalled her to keep walking. She turned and saw that it was Hotch. "Come on," he whispered encouragingly.

"Where is the body now?" Rossi pressed.

"At the medical examiner's office in Kirksville. The body was in the same condition as the other two, same COD, a star carved into the hip, missing underwear, etcetera."

"So where was the body found?" Elle asked the next question.

"On Mr. Robert Foreman's property."

Emily stopped once again. "Mr. Foreman's farm is the one right next to Ryan's."

"Yes, yes it is," Clark responded distrustfully. "My agents are questioning him again as we speak. But there's something even more suspicious than all of that."

"What?" Burke asked curiously.

He didn't speak again until they reached the Violent Crimes Unit bullpen. "This," he said as he passed Gideon a file folder with crime scene photos in it. "That was found on the scene, right next to Leona Murphy's body," he stated dejectedly.

Everyone gathered around Gideon and waited impatiently as he began to pull out the photos. "What is that?" Reid asked confused.

They all stared down at the photograph of the light blue t-shirt with the words 'Fish out of Water' written across it until Emily spoke up. "That's my t-shirt," she declared hoarsely.

Morgan spoke immediately. "Em, are you sure?"

She nodded, "Yeah, my senior year of high school, the swim team gave it to me when they named me captain." She looked down confused. "But I haven't seen that shirt in forever."

As Emily thought, Gideon shuffled through the other photos. One was of a piece of eight by eleven paper with the typewritten words 'The Key' on it. Gideon exchanged looks with Rossi and Hotch. The message that the unsub was sending them was quite obvious. This was all about Emily.

"I left that t-shirt in St. Louis!"

Everyone turned to Emily. "What do you mean?" Garcia asked puzzled.

"I left that t-shirt at Ryan's apartment in St. Louis," she explained.

"I'm really starting to like this guy for this," Clark said angrily. "Things lead to him!"

"Yeah, it's too easy," Rossi argued, "our unsub is smarter than this."

The disagreement was prevented from escalating thanks to the ringing of Agent Clark's cell phone. He pulled it out of the inside pocket of his suit jacket and walked away from them before opening it. He returned to them with a triumphant smile on his face. "Well maybe he isn't. My agents are bringing Powell in right now."

**A/N: Dun dun duuuhhh!! Review!! And stick around to see if Ryan really is the unsub!**


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: Same thank yous! :)**

**Disclaimer: Same as always.**

**Chapter 14 - Framed **

"Why?" Emily asked frantically.

Agent Clark gave all of them a smug expression as he explained. "My guys went to ask him a few questions and they saw that the tire tracks from his truck were fresh. So they searched it and found a pair of female underwear." He walked out of the bullpen without another word and left the group of ten speechless.

"Just hang back," Hotch whispered loud enough for all of them to hear. "This is a St. Louis arrest and since none of us belong to this field office, it's not our place to go over their head."

"But this is a federal case!" Burke protested passionately.

"Which is why JJ is going to talk him over," Hotch replied as he made eye contact with their media liaison. JJ nodded and quickly walked the path that Agent Clark had taken.

"The rest of us," Gideon started as he turned to face the group, "are going to find our unsub."

--------------------

They were working at high speed, exploring every possible theory. But they all stopped what they were doing when the elevators doors 'dinged' open and Ryan Powell stepped out. He was escorted by one unfamiliar St. Louis agent, Agent Morris, and Agent Clark, and he was cuffed behind the back. Emily felt her heart sink a little and she wasn't ready to expand on why.

Hotch and Gideon got up from the table and gave the rest of the group a look that told them to keep working. But they made no objection when Emily followed them out of the bullpen. They saw Agent Clark and another male agent standing outside of a window to an interrogation room. "You know that this is a mistake," Hotch stated as they stepped up to the two men.

"We believe otherwise," the other agent stated sharply. "The crime lab downstairs is processing the underwear that we found in Powell's truck and a strand of long, brown hair."

Emily glanced through the window and saw Agent Morris leading the interrogation. He was obviously going for the aggressive approach. She could clearly tell that he was yelling and so was Ryan in response. Morris stood up straight and sighed heavily before leaving the room. It was a couple of minutes before he rounded the corner and joined his teammates. Emily now had an idea where the door to the interrogation room was.

"He just asked for a lawyer," Morris relayed the information.

"He's not the unsub," Gideon said. "You're wasting your time and resources."

Agent Clark ignored the advice from the BAU and spoke to his agents instead. "Let's leave him until his lawyer shows."

The three men walked away and Gideon sighed heavily. "Can I talk to him?" Emily asked tentatively.

Hotch and Gideon exchanged glances before Hotch nodded and spoke hurriedly, "Yeah, but make it quick and tell him to calm down and think."

She nodded in reply before turning her back and walking around the corner. She found the door easily but stopped when her hand landed on the doorknob and she looked through the small window in the door. He looked so…vulnerable. He was wearing sneakers, sweat pants, and a hooded sweater. His blonde hair was messy and looked to be freshly slept on. He looked like he had given up already; his head was lying on the table.

She snuck into the interrogation room and Ryan immediately sat up straight in his chair. "Em," he said with a small smile. She took the seat across from him. She felt a shiver run down her spine as she heard the clinking of his handcuffs. "Do they seriously think that I killed three women?" He asked panicked.

"We're trying to convince them that you didn't," she said soothingly. "But I know that they're going to try to hold you for 72 hours."

He sighed and let his head fall down until it hit the metal table. "How can they do that?"

"They can hold you for 72 hours without charging you," she explained calmly. He sighed again and she reached across and gently placed her hand on top of one of his. "Ryan, you have to help me figure out who did this."

"I don't know Em!" He exclaimed in frustration.

"Its someone that we've both, at the very least, come in contact with once and something that one of us did, three months ago, set him off." She explained evenly and patiently. She couldn't imagine what he was going through right now, so she didn't expect him to be able to think clearly, but she was trying to help.

"I don't know," he sighed again. "I don't think like you do, I'm a numbers guy."

"Just think about it, okay?" She smiled softly. "Even the smallest little detail will help."

She got up out of her chair and he stood up as well. "Where are you going?" He asked worriedly.

"I'm not supposed to be in here talking to you."

He sighed in disappointment. "Will you be back?" He asked with a boyish smile. He now realized how nice it was to have a friend in law enforcement.

"I'll try," she promised before quickly leaving the interrogation room.

Once she closed the door behind her she let out a deep breath and took a moment to compose herself. She thought about the best way that she could try to help Ryan. Trying to weasel into the interrogation was out of the question. She was not about to suck up to Agent Clark. She paused for a moment before she smiled to herself. The crime lab. Surely the underwear that they found in Ryan's truck couldn't belong to any of their victims. She didn't like the idea of him having a pair of female underwear in his truck at all, but that was beside the point. The scientists in the crime lab would disprove the St. Louis agents' belief and they wouldn't have any circumstantial evidence on which to hold Ryan.

She just hoped that some of her friends still worked in the lab. With her background in forensics, the "lab rats" had always respected her. She walked to the elevator, stepped inside, and pressed the number three. She stepped out of the elevator and walked until she reached the first section of the fairly large crime lab. She smiled as she saw Claire Burton. She was energetic and pleasant, reminding Emily of Garcia, and she had been fresh out of the University of Illinois when they had first met two years ago.

"Long time, no see," she spoke as she walked into the room.

Claire tore her eyes away from her microscope and looked up. "Oh my God!" She rushed towards Emily and hugged her. "Emily," she laughed and cleared her throat before she spoke in a deep voice. "Sorry…Agent Prentiss," she laughed again. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm working a case," she answered cautiously.

Claire eyed her curiously. "The federal one? You're down from Chicago?"

She nodded, "Yeah, and I was wondering if you could do me a huge favour."

"Sure! Anything," she replied excitedly.

"Can you tell me the results off of the pair of underwear that Agent Clark brought in?"

"We're waiting, you know how slow our equipment is," she laughed. "This isn't _CSI_."

Emily laughed along with her. "Okay, so when you get the results, can you give me a quick call before you tell Agent Clark?" Claire nodded quickly and Emily let out the breath that she was holding in. "Okay, here's my card, it has my new cell number on it."

"Sweet," Claire giggled.

"Thanks so much, Claire," she said gratefully.

"No problem. Talk to ya soon!"

Emily smiled again before she left the room and headed back to the elevator. When she reappeared in the Violent Crimes Unit bullpen, she received inquisitive looks.

"Where did you disappear to?" Morgan asked laughing lightly.

"I infiltrated the crime lab," she replied with a small grin as she took a seat at the table. "I have friends here."

"Are you doing what I think you're doing?" Morgan asked smirking.

She chuckled, "If anyone else asks…no."

"What is she doing?" Reid asked confused.

Morgan turned to Reid and smiled. "She's going to get her friends in the crime lab to tell us the results of the 'evidence' that they brought in before they tell Agent Clark."

"We should be prepared in case the lab confirms that the underwear does belong to one of our vics," Rossi stated slowly. "The unsub could be framing Ryan Powell."

"Which means that he holds some vendetta against him," Burke thought out loud.

"Yeah, for this unsub framing someone would be personal," Elle added as she twirled a pen between her fingers.

"So who are we looking for?" Gideon asked. He posed the question because he felt that their conversation was heading somewhere good.

"Someone who has attached himself to Ryan Powell and…Emily Prentiss," Reid added quietly.

"He's dumped two bodies in the same area," Morgan pointed out. "He's comfortable around that farmland."

"He broke into Ryan Powell's apartment," Garcia spoke up and everyone turned towards her. "He stole Em's t-shirt, the one that she said that she left in Ryan's apartment."

"And he left that note at the crime scene, too," JJ said.

"He's getting really cocky," Hotch sighed in frustration. "The phone call, the note, the t-shirt, either he's itching to get caught to claim his work or…"

"He's planning something else," Gideon finished his sentence.

Their conversation was interrupted by the ringing of a cell phone. Emily quickly pulled her phone out of her pocket and flipped it open. "Yeah Claire, you have the results?" She paused for a moment and everyone watched as her eyes widened in horror followed by her face falling in disappointment. "Okay, thanks Claire, I appreciate it." She closed her phone and placed it on the table in front of her.

Everyone sitting around the table with her already knew what she was about to say but they let her announce it anyway. "Leona Murphy's DNA was found in Ryan's truck."

**A/N: To all _CSI _fans: I actually enjoy the show and I apologize for the little remark. LOL. Review! :)**


	15. Chapter 15

**Disclaimer: Same as always.**

**Chapter 15 – One Minute I Held the Key…**

A few minutes later, Agent Clark walked into the bullpen and approached their table. "Powell's our guy; would the BAU like the interview? We need to find Courtney Piercey."

Gideon jumped at the chance for the interview. They could use the 'interrogation' to find their real unsub. "Hotch why don't you? And take Elle with you."

Hotch and Elle got up out of their chairs and followed Agent Clark out of the bullpen. "Hotch is one of the best interrogators I've ever worked with," Gideon told the rest of the group reassuringly. "He knows what to do."

Hotch asked Agent Morris for the keys to the handcuffs before he and Elle entered the interrogation room. A video camera was already set up, ready to catch Ryan's 'confession' and a pretty blonde sat next to him. Hotch sat down in the chair across from him and leaned forward. "Let me get those," he said as he unlocked the handcuffs and let Ryan's hands free.

He sighed in relief. "Thanks."

"I'm his lawyer, Krista Powell," she introduced herself as she shook Hotch's hand.

"Sister?" He asked curiously and she nodded in reply.

Hotch turned towards Elle, who was still standing by the door, and motioned for her to take the seat beside him. "We found Leona Murphy's DNA in your truck," Elle stated and she watched his eyes widen in horror. "How do you think it got there?"

"I have no idea," he answered quickly.

"Were you awake when the police showed up at your house?" Hotch asked curiously.

Ryan nodded, "Yes, Mr. Foreman called me…"

Elle cut him off, "What time?"

"Umm…it was around two…two thirty…and he called and he was kind of hysterical and he told me that he had just found the dead body of a girl on his farm and that he called the police and they were on their way."

"How did he stumble upon the body?" Elle asked sceptically.

"One of his horses got loose and it woke him up so he went to go find her and that's when he found the body," Ryan explained truthfully.

Elle nodded slowly. It was an interesting story, but as they all knew, a sexual sadist would not dump a body on his own property, so Foreman was already ruled out as a suspect. "Why would he call you?"

"Our families have always been close," Ryan answered quietly as he briefly glanced at his sister. "So I went over and put the horse back in the stable for him and then went back to my own house."

"Where were you last night?" Hotch asked the routine question.

"I was at home, working…I don't have an alibi," he added softly.

"Are you going to charge him?" His lawyer, and sister, asked anxiously.

Hotch looked down at the notepad in front of him and slowly picked up the pen beside it. He spoke in his sternest voice as he wrote a note on the paper. "We're going to hold him overnight."

Ryan glanced at the note that Hotch had passed to his sister. It read: _We know that he didn't do this_.

Meanwhile……

Emily stared down at the crime scene photos but she couldn't concentrate. "I'm going to go out for some fresh air," she told everyone as she got up out of her chair.

"Do you want me to come with you?" Morgan asked immediately.

"No, I'll just be a minute," she assured him. She left the bullpen and headed straight to the crime lab. She had lied, but only a little. She was going outside but certainly not for fresh air.

She smiled when she saw Claire again. "Hey, can I bum a cigarette and a light?"

"Yeah, sure!" Claire rushed towards her coat which was hanging on a hook beside the door and handed Emily her requested items.

"Thanks so much," Emily said gratefully before practically running to the elevator.

She was so stressed out that she only knew of two things that would make her feel better, and that was smoking or sex. And since she hadn't experienced the latter in six months and knew that almost all of the lab rats smoked, she decided to go back to her old habit. She was betraying the past ten smoke-free months, but right now she didn't care.

She walked out of the St. Louis field office and walked around to the back of the building and leaned against the brick wall of the adjoining alleyway. She had taken every single smoke break while working here at this very spot. Being here now had a very odd element of nostalgia to it.

She took a single cigarette out of the pack that Claire had given her and placed it in her mouth. She lit it and then sighed in pleasure. Yeah, she really didn't care about her health right now.

"You know those things can kill you." A male voice to her right said.

"Yup, but right now I could care less." She tilted her head upwards so that she could look at the stranger and her mouth widened before she laughed lightly. "Hey, a familiar face! What are you doing here? The last time that I checked, you didn't hang around FBI offices for fun, especially not in St. Louis."

He laughed as he leaned against the wall next to her. "Actually, I'm down from Chicago visiting my parents, and the FBI called me in to ask me some questions about Ryan. Crazy huh? What are you doing here?"

"I'm working this case," she answered simply.

"Riiigghtt," he grinned, "I saw your name in the paper." He paused for a moment and shifted his weight. "So what do you think of it all?"

"What?" She asked confused.

"Of Ryan being a serial killer, abducting and killing women who look like his ex-fiancé?"

"Ummm," she started awkwardly as she tapped the loose ashes off the end of her cigarette. She had been caught off guard when he addressed the resemblance. "He didn't do it."

"You seem pretty sure," he replied with raised eyebrows.

"I am," she confirmed.

"So you don't think that a guy like Ryan, an intelligent, successful, attractive, _normal_, country boy can one day just snap and start to have the urge to kill women that remind him of the one person that he hates the most?"

When he started his statement and his voice dropped an octave and turned into a slight growl, alarms began to go off in Emily's head. By the time he finished speaking, her body had gone rigid and she was terrified to turn her face to look at him.

"Don't make a sound and don't reach for your gun." She felt the cold blade of a knife pressed against her neck and she knew that he was dead serious. He reached around her waist and pulled her gun out of its holster. She felt the butt of her gun impact hard with the back of her head before she fell forward and blacked out.

**A/N: A quick post and a short author's note because school is killing me. LOL. Review!! :)**


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N: Thanks for all of the reviews! I really wasn't expecting the response that I got for the last chapter. Love you guys! LOL. Enjoy...**

**Disclaimer: Same as always.**

**Chapter 16 – The Playwright **

Hotch and Elle returned to the bullpen and took their seats. No one was speaking and you could feel the tension. It was almost like the atmosphere of the safe house a year ago. "What's going on?" Elle spoke to break the silence. She turned to look at Reid and could tell by the look on his face that he was thinking really hard about something. She had barely spoken to him today but she had to put her personal feelings aside for work. She couldn't ignore the glint in his eyes that told her that he had an idea. "What's going on in there?" She smiled softly.

He continued to stare off into space as he replied, "We're missing something." He recalled having similar feelings on the day that they searched Powell Farm.

"What do you mean, Reid?" Burke asked inquisitively.

"Our unsub put so much effort into framing Ryan Powell that it was obviously part of his plan…"

"Go on," Gideon encouraged.

"He wanted us to take him into custody for a reason," Reid continued.

"Guys, Emily's been gone for a while," Garcia stated uneasily.

Morgan's eyes widened in fear. "Damn." He jumped up and dashed out of the bullpen at top speed, and Hotch was right on his heels. He reached the elevator and repeatedly pushed the button. "Damn it!" The elevator wasn't moving fast enough for his liking so he headed straight for the stairs. He bolted down nine flights, and Hotch was still behind him. He barged through the stairwell door and then sprinted across the lobby and pushed the front doors open. He stopped and looked around as he caught his breath. He hadn't run that fast in a long time. He saw nothing suspicious so he ran around to the back of the building. He felt the anger surge through him and he wanted to put his hand through a wall when he saw a cigarette butt, a pack of cigarettes, a lighter, and an FBI badge.

Hotch bent down and picked the badge up off of the ground. He flipped it open and then quickly closed it. "It's Emily's," he stated quietly. "He has her."

Morgan swore again and Hotch gave him a look that told him to calm down. "What are we going to do, Hotch?" He asked frantically.

"We're going to go back into the building and find our real unsub," he answered poised. "Let's get a crime scene team down here."

They walked back into the field office and took the elevator up to the Violent Crimes Unit bullpen and everyone was on their feet, waiting impatiently. "Agent Clark, get a crime scene team down to the alleyway behind the building," Hotch ordered in a voice that was on the brink of losing control.

"Why?" Clark asked confused.

"Where's Emily?" Reid asked worriedly. Neither Hotch nor Morgan spoke so the answer became abundantly clear. Their unsub had Emily. "Why was she behind the building?" He asked another question.

"Looks like she was having a smoke," Morgan replied with a sigh.

"Garcia, see if you can get a location on her cell phone," Hotch said quickly.

Garcia sat back down in her seat, turned to her laptop, and typed quickly. She was in a state of shock but luckily her fingers were unaffected. "It's not on."

"Well keep that open just in case it turns back on," Burke told her quietly.

"What do we do know?" JJ asked worriedly. It seemed as if they hadn't made any progress in this case in forever, so how were they supposed to find Emily?

"Let's see where Reid was going about the profile being off," Rossi proposed.

Reid shook his head. "I don't know, it was just a theory," he answered quietly as he paced.

Burke placed a hand on Reid's shoulder to stop him from fidgeting. "I think that you're right, man. I don't think that our guy is a sexual sadist."

Everyone looked at Burke curiously and waited for him to explain his reasoning.

--------------------

Emily groaned as she was tossed onto the barn floor. Her hands were tied behind her back and her ankles were tied together. Her head was pounding, but she had returned to consciousness halfway through the drive. She couldn't believe that Brandon Thomas was their unsub. He was Ryan's best friend and she was pretty sure that he was gay. Their profile had been wrong. This was about her and Ryan, but it wasn't about sexual sadism; it was about hate.

He lived in Chicago and she saw him frequently. They volunteered at the same youth center. He had taken his victims, and now her, to his family's farm, which was just down the road from the Powell farm. How come she hadn't thought of this? She sighed. She had thought nothing of the way that he almost constantly talked about Ryan; they had, after all, grown up together. And she had found it odd when four months ago, he had decided to die his dark brown hair blonde, but she didn't give it a second thought. She had thought that he liked her. She was obviously wrong. He was in love with Ryan, so in his eyes she had always been an opponent, an inconvenience…Her head hurt too much to think anymore.

"Who are you?" A frail voice asked from somewhere behind her.

She rolled over, blew her hair out of her eyes, and suppressed a gasp when she saw Courtney Piercey. Her hands and feet were also tied up and she was sitting in the corner of the barn. She didn't look to be bleeding and the look on her face wasn't pain, it was discomfort and fear. "I'm Emily, I'm with the FBI, you're going to get out of here," she said calmly.

Her face widened in horror and she gasped aloud. "Emily? You're Emily?" She asked in a panic.

"Yes, I am," she replied slowly. She was confused. "How do you know who I am?"

"We act out a play…" she responded meekly.

"What?"

"He wrote a play about himself…and you…and Ryan… he hasn't started with me yet, but I saw it when Leona was in it," she confessed fearfully. "He plays Ryan."

Things made a little bit more sense now. The carving of her birthmark on the victims was his way of turning them into her…for the part. "What happens in the play?" Emily asked tentatively.

"It goes through the whole relationship, first meeting, first date, sex for the first time, first I love yous, the proposal," Courtney explained slowly. The images of those scenes were rapidly running through her head.

Emily sighed. Of course Brandon would know the details of their entire relationship, Ryan told him everything. "How does it end?"

"Well, Emily goes to…" Courtney stopped and smiled awkwardly, "you go to Washington D.C. for work and Ryan breaks up with you over the phone…"

"Yeah, that's accurate," Emily huffed.

"But then when you come back he goes to confront you and he…" Courtney stopped speaking and looked away. She was now face to face with the woman that all of this madness was about.

"Its okay, you can say it, in the play he strangles me?"

Courtney nodded, "Yeah."

"Why?" Emily asked curiously. This aspect was crucial to getting inside of Brandon's head.

"Because," she hesitated, "he realizes that you've kept him for his true love all these years…Brandon."

So Brandon was in love with Ryan and three women were dead because of her.

**A/N: So how does my unsub rank among other fanfiction unsubs?? Review and tell me!! :)**


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N: Thanks for the reviews for the last chapter. :) I do think that this is one of my weaker chapters but bear with me. Its a little Ryan/Emily background. Flashbacks are in italics. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: Same as always.**

**Chapter 17 – Only Guilty Men Sleep**

Ryan paced the interrogation room. His sister had left, he was all alone, and he wanted out. His body was tired and his head ached, but he couldn't sleep. Despite the weariness, his mind wouldn't allow him. They had all told him to think, so that's exactly what he was doing. Memories of his life were playing like a movie and he was watching them very closely.

"_I just want to apologize again for smacking into you," Emily laughed awkwardly as he walked her to the front doors of her apartment building._

"_Its okay," he laughed, "it wasn't your fault. Did you like the movie?"_

_She nodded timidly. "Yeah."_

_He took a deep breath and mustered up all of his courage before saying, "So this may be a little bold…" He stopped and looked to her for encouragement._

"_Go on." And he smiled when she gave it._

"_Can I see you again? Like a planned date?" He had never been this nervous around a woman before._

_She blushed and tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "Oh, a date," she gently bit down on her bottom lip. "Umm…to be honest I wasn't expecting…yeah…okay."_

"_Well, this is my card." He laughed as he pulled one of his business cards out of his wallet. They exchanged cards and he took a step towards her with the intention of kissing her goodnight. He leaned down and she reflexively turned away from him. He chuckled with embarrassment and stuttered an apology._

"_No, I'm sorry," she replied quickly. She stood on the tips of her toes and kissed him sweetly on the cheek._

_He smiled brightly. It was refreshing. He didn't have a problem attracting women and most of the women that he met usually threw themselves at him, so a chaste kiss on the cheek set his insides on fire. This woman was different._

--------------------

_He walked Emily to her apartment door and smiled playfully as he rested a hand on the doorframe and leaned closer to her. "You look so cute with snowflakes in your hair."_

_She blushed an adorable shade of red and his smiled widened. She ran her fingers through the ends of her hair as she spoke. "Do you want to come in and have some hot chocolate to warm yourself up?"_

"_I can think of other ways to warm up," he said huskily._

_She laughed, "We'll see."_

_He leaned down and kissed her slowly. "Let me make love to you," he whispered._

_Her hands fisted in his jacket as he kissed her again. After pulling back, she involuntarily licked her lips and a grin formed on his face. "Yeah, okay, you can come inside," she said breathlessly._

_He chuckled, "Only if you want me to, Emily."_

"_Uh huh, yeah, I do." She grabbed him by the jacket with one hand and began to unlock her door with the other._

"_Is the offer for hot chocolate still on the table?" He asked smirking._

"_I believe you proposed a better way to warm up." She pushed her door open and dragged him inside of her apartment._

--------------------

"_So what do you think?" He asked anxiously as he followed his mother into the kitchen._

"_I think that she's great," his mother smiled. "Very sweet."_

"_And smart." He turned to see that both of his siblings had joined them in the kitchen. "Not exactly like some of the airheads you've dated," Krista added._

"_Well she meets Kris' intelligence requirement," he laughed._

"_She's very polite," his mother beamed. He smiled to himself. With his mother, proper manners and etiquette went a very long way, and Emily was used to that view._

"_And hot!"_

_He laughed at his teenage brother as he gave him a playful smack on the back. But his mother didn't find it quite as amusing. "Jacob Nathaniel Powell!"_

"_What?" Jake laughed._

"_Watch your mouth!"_

"_I didn't say anything!" Jake replied stunned._

_He laughed as he wrapped an arm around his brother's shoulders. "Come on man," he said as he began to lead Jake out of the kitchen. "She is hot, just don't stare like the creepy teenage boy you are." _

--------------------

_He and Emily were lazing around in bed when his cell phone rang. He picked it up off of his bedside table and quickly looked at the caller ID before turning it off and laying it back down again. "Who is it?" Emily mumbled into his chest._

"_Just Brandon," he replied as he ran a hand through her hair. "He probably just wants to see if I wanna go play softball or something."_

"_He's single, right?" Emily asked curiously._

_He nodded, "Yeah."_

"_We should set him up."_

_He laughed, "Trust me, I've tried. It's no use. He can't close the deal, and I've been his wingman for some pretty attractive women."_

_His girlfriend laughed hysterically. "Well, maybe that's the problem."_

_He scoffed, "What? I am a solid wingman!"_

_She rested her chin on his chest and looked up at him. "No, I mean, I think the women part might be the problem."_

"_I thought you'd think that I have great taste in women," he smirked._

_She smiled as she ran a finger down his abdomen. "You do…but honey, Brandon's gay."_

"_No, he's not!" He replied instantly._

"_Baby, he is," she retaliated. "My brother's gay, I know the signs."_

_He shook his head defiantly. "I've known that guy all my life. We helped out with each others' farm chores, we played high school football together, he was in the passenger seat the first time I took the truck into town without asking Dad…we're best friends and if he was gay, I wouldn't have a problem with it. I just know that he isn't."_

"_Okay," she replied in disbelief but she didn't offer another argument._

--------------------

"_I really shouldn't have gotten drunk," he laughed loudly. "I don't drink! I don't like the taste, yet I got drunk!" He rambled through laughter. "Brandon, why did I get drunk?"_

_Brandon laughed lightly as he followed him into the living room. "You just said that you really wanted to get drunk and I'm assuming that it's because of Emily," he added bitterly._

_He collapsed onto the couch. "Yeah, I was stupid, I miss her, I like having a girlfriend. I'm not a guy who can just sleep with women. I like being the dependable boyfriend. And I miss her cute, little butt," he pouted._

"_What did you ever see in her, though?" Brandon asked harshly. He looked up at him in disbelief. He had never before heard his best friend in such a foul mood. He was confused. Drunk and confused. Brandon's next words came out in an angry rush. "She's stuck-up, self-centered, and selfish."_

"_Whoa man," he chuckled, "calm down."_

"_Sorry," Brandon laughed lightly as he tried to cover up his irritation. It wasn't working. Then Brandon said something that he was sure wasn't meant for his ears. "It's just that you're so perfect…I hate her…"_

Ryan leapt to his feet. He had been previously sitting on the floor of the interrogation room. He instinctively reached for the doorknob although he already knew that he was locked in. He impatiently banged on the door, hoping that someone would hear him.

"I know who the unsub is!" He yelled loudly.

**A/N: Review!!!!!**


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N: Thanks for the reviews, especially jareaufan's! :)**

**Disclaimer: Same as always.**

**Chapter 18 – Demands**

Agent Morris turned the corner with a curious look on his face. Where was all that noise coming from? His expression turned angry as he realized that it was coming from the interrogation room. He was going to kick the crap out of that Powell guy. He opened the door and didn't even have a chance to say anything threatening before Powell spoke urgently.

"I think I know who the unsub is!" Morris' mouth dropped open. "Can I speak to Agent Prentiss?"

Morris left quickly without uttering a word. He reached the VCU bullpen and saw everyone's eyes turn to him. "Umm…Powell says that he thinks that he knows who the unsub is?"

"Bring him out," Hotch almost barked.

Morris obeyed without question and lead Ryan to the bullpen. "Where's Emily?" He asked immediately.

Everyone ignored his question but he noticed that several expressions changed dramatically. "Who's the unsub?" Morgan asked frantically.

"I think that it's Brandon Thomas," he answered tentatively.

"Garcia," Gideon said instantly.

The blonde typed furiously and swiftly retrieved all the information that she could find on their suspect. "Brandon Thomas, 30. He works for a shipping company based out of Chicago. He has a business degree from Notre Dame. No record." She pressed a few more keys. "Not married, no kids. His parents both died in a car accident when he was 23. He has a younger brother. He now resides in Chicago but he only moved there recently…four and a half months ago." Garcia looked up at her friends with a frightened expression.

"Could that have been the trigger?" Elle asked curiously.

Ryan spoke even though he felt that the question was not directed towards him. "A week after he moved, he called me and said that he had run into Emily. It was the first time that he had seen her in almost nine months."

"How do you know him?" Morgan inquired suspiciously.

"He's…my…he's my best friend," he answered in shame. "We grew up only a few miles apart, which is like, next door neighbours for our town…"

"Wait!" Rossi stopped Ryan's explanation. "A few miles apart? Does he own a farm?"

"Well, not technically, it was left to his brother, but yeah, he goes back every now and then."

"How does he feel about Emily?" Reid asked curiously.

"Umm, well, I thought that he liked her, as a friend," Ryan clarified quickly. "But after we broke up, he made it pretty clear that he hates her guts."

Garcia looked up at Burke and Reid, who were standing side by side. "What does that mean?" Garcia disregarded her own question as her laptop made a loud 'ding'. Everyone's gaze turned towards her. "Em's phone just turned back on!"

"Trace it." Hotch had barely gotten the command out of his mouth before Morgan's cell phone began to ring.

He dug the phone out of his pocket and flipped the screen. "It's her."

"Put her on speaker," Gideon urged.

Morgan put the call on speaker phone before answering. "Hey Em, are you okay?"

"_Oh, she's fine_," a deep, unfamiliar voice answered.

"That's Brandon," Ryan mouthed.

"Can I speak to her?" Morgan asked slowly. He was trying his hardest to control his temper.

"_I don't think that's necessary_."

"Well then, why are you calling me, Brandon?" Morgan decided to use his name to see how he would respond.

"_Because I asked her who she would like me to call and she said you_." They could all hear that he was agitated, he was gritting his teeth. "_I need all of you to help me rewrite the last act of the play_."

The FBI agents exchanged baffled looks. "What?" Morgan responded in confusion.

"_I want you to come here and get her. I'm sure that you know where I am by now_," he added arrogantly.

"Tell us what you want us to do, Brandon," Gideon spoke up quietly.

"_Hello Agent Gideon_," Brandon replied politely. "_You can all come here, on one of your little raids, to the main barn on the northwest side of the property. Ryan will know exactly where it is. But here is the trick. Only Ryan can come inside. If anyone else comes in…well, I'm sure you can guess what will happen_."

"We can do that, Brandon," Gideon answered.

"_Perfect. I'll be expecting you soon_."

The line went dead and Morgan snapped his phone closed.

"Let's go," Hotch said quickly.

Gideon grabbed his jacket off of the back of his chair as he stood up. "Burke, Morgan, Elle, and JJ, you're coming with us. Morris, get Clark and tell him that we have our unsub."

**A/N: Sorry for the short chapter. It may be a little while before the next update because I'm in major study mode. LOL. But you guys should review and urge me to study more efficiently so that I can write more. LOL.**


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N: Thanks for the reviews from the last chapter and for the patience. I am SO sorry that I've kept you guys waiting so long! I hope that you enjoy this chapter and please forgive me. (Pouting face) LOL.**

**Disclaimer: Same as always.**

**Chapter 19 – First Light**

"I'm nervous," Garcia stated quietly as she looked up at Rossi and Reid.

"Me too," Reid admitted.

"It'll be fine." Rossi spoke with feigned confidence; he doubted his own words.

Reid looked at his wrist watch. "They should be there soon."

--------------------

It was first light when they arrived at Thomas Farm. They parked the three SUVs in the main driveway. The FBI agents filed out of the vehicles and proceeded to put on their bullet proof vests. "Should we put one on Ryan?" Burke asked curiously.

Gideon shook his head, "It will make him feel threatened and he'll just ask him to take it off anyway."

"Are you okay with this?" JJ asked Ryan quietly.

Ryan gave her a small smile. "It's okay. I'm not afraid to die."

"So where's the barn?" Hotch asked in his usual no-nonsense manner.

"This way." Ryan began to lead the way across the property with Burke and Hotch closely at his side and everyone else following behind, guns drawn.

Once they passed the house, they could all see a large barn in the distance and they were headed towards it.

When they were about a hundred metres from the barn, Hotch stopped Ryan. "You have to do your best to let us know what's going on in there."

Ryan nodded. "Okay."

"Especially whether or not he's armed."

Ryan nodded once again. "Okay."

Gideon split the group into halves and they surrounded the barn. They formed the perimeter while Hotch and Morgan stood on either side of the door. Both men were ready and willing to burst through the barn door and take down their unsub.

Hotch motioned Ryan forward and the younger man took a deep breath. "Brandon," he called out cautiously as he began to pull open the barn door.

"Yeah, come on in Ry."

Ryan froze. Brandon's voice sounded eerie calm. He entered the barn with thoughtful, careful steps. He saw that Brandon was leaning against the workbench that was built into the side of the structure. He wasn't fidgeting. There weren't any dark circles under his eyes. He looked clean. He was also holding a gun in one hand and a thin rope in the other. Out of his peripheral vision he could see a brunette that he recognized from the news tied up in a corner. Luckily, she looked unharmed. But his focus was Emily, who was lying at Brandon's feet with her hands tied behind her back and her ankles tied together. Her work clothes were crumpled and her long hair was a mess. She was facing away from him but she was lying very still. There was a strong possibility that she was unconscious.

"Brandon, what's going on?" He wished that his voice was steadier, he sounded terrified.

"I have to finish this," he answered quietly.

"What does that mean, Brandon?" Ryan asked quietly.

"I'm going to let her go." Brandon pointed to the young woman that was tied up in the corner.

"That's good, man," Ryan replied with a small smile.

"But Emily has to stay," he stated sternly. Ryan couldn't remember ever hearing Brandon so serious. He looked menacing, frightening, and out of control. His eyes were narrowed and they had darkened considerably. Normally, his best friend was playful and outgoing. He was incredibly social and he was always the life of the party. The contrast between the Brandon that he was familiar with and the Brandon that was standing in front of him was astounding.

"Why?" Ryan asked with a forced chuckle. He was trying to sound as normal as possible.

"Because then the play will be over," Brandon stated as if it were an obvious answer.

"Brandon, I don't understand," Ryan replied in confusion. Brandon groaned and violently grabbed his hair in frustration. "Whoa, calm down man."

Brandon looked up at him and gave him a small smile. "I'm okay."

All of a sudden, Brandon thrust the rope at him and it fell to the ground at his feet. "What's this for?" Ryan asked confused.

"For Emily." Again, the answer was apparently supposed to be obvious.

The gun in Brandon's hand moved closer to Emily and Ryan panicked. "How about we put the gun down, man?" He hoped that he had said that loud enough so that Morgan and Hotch could hear him. "You know that guns make me nervous. I never liked shooting Dad's gun, remember?" He asked laughing.

Brandon smiled pleasantly. "Yeah, I remember. Okay, you take Emily and I'll put down the gun. She'll go pretty quickly, she's out." Brandon spoke slowly as Ryan gently lifted Emily up off of the barn floor. His friend's words set in when he lowered her back onto the ground, away from Brandon, and knelt down beside her. Brandon truly believed that he was going to kill Emily…right now.

"Okay, I have Emily. The gun?" Ryan asked innocently.

"Oh yeah," Brandon laughed, "it's actually empty anyway but when people see a gun pointed at them they freak out."

That was the moment that Gideon chose to give Hotch the go-ahead to go inside. Gideon and Burke trained their guns on the unsub while Morgan tackled him. Elle and JJ rushed to Courtney Piercey and he approached Ryan, who was cradling an unconscious Emily. Hotch knelt down and reflexively checked her pulse, which was very strong.

"Is she okay?" Ryan asked in concern and the breaking of his voice was obvious.

"She's unconscious," Hotch replied quickly. "We should get them to a hospital." He nodded his head in the direction of Courtney Piercey who was being untied by Elle and JJ.

"We have this," Gideon spoke solely to Hotch. "Why don't you, Elle, and JJ go to the hospital?"

Hotch nodded and moved to pick Emily up into his arms. "I'll take it from here," he told Ryan coldly. Ryan got to his feet and looked at Hotch with a taken aback expression.

Hotch carried Emily to one of the SUVs and JJ and Elle slowly escorted Courtney Piercey. She wasn't visibly injured, but it had been a while since she'd had to support her own weight so her knees and ankles were a little weak.

Morgan and Burke were a little less gentle with their handling of the unsub. They shoved Brandon Thomas into the backseat of one of the SUVs and watched in shock as Gideon climbed in and sat beside him. Burke walked around to the passenger's side and Morgan moved into the driver's seat.

When they pulled out of the driveway, Gideon began to speak and Burke smiled to himself. He was going to do an interrogation in the SUV. "I'm Jason Gideon; did Agent Morgan read you your rights?"

"Yes," Brandon answered simply.

"How do you feel?" Gideon knew that Brandon would keep talking. The "play" had become his life; he would want to fully explain himself. He wasn't an unsub who wanted the glory. He had had a mission and he would want to justify it.

"Pissed off," he replied through clenched teeth.

"Because the play isn't over?"

"Yup." Brandon nodded slowly. "I can't believe he tricked me!"

"Who? Ryan?"

Brandon nodded again. "I can't believe he betrayed my trust like that!"

"It's because he doesn't feel the same way about you Brandon," Burke joined in. He knew that that would get him going.

"Don't say that!" Brandon yelled. "You don't know anything! You don't know anything," he repeated quietly to himself.

"You're going away for a long time man," Morgan stated. He had calmed down considerably since they had found Emily and now that he had the road to concentrate on, he could control his temper better.

"Yeah," Burke agreed. "You kidnapped four women, murdered three of them, and kidnapped a federal agent. That's a lot of years. Do you think that Ryan is gonna visit you?"

Brandon's eyes widened in alarm because of Burke's words. His motivation and state of mind was abundantly clear. "Why don't we talk about why and how you did it?" Gideon proposed in a kind voice.

"Yeah, okay," Brandon replied in a whisper.

**A/N: Okay, so give me your thoughts on Brandon because I think that he's the most interesting unsub I've ever created. So that's the case but we have some serious loose ends to tie up regarding our couples. ;) Stay tuned and review!!! :)**


	20. Chapter 20

**A/N: Thanks for the reviews! :) Now that the case is finished, its back to our characters and their drama!!!! :)**

**Disclaimer: Same as always.**

**Chapter 20 – Closure**

"So, wait, what? Gideon got a full confession out of him in the car?" Elle asked in amazement.

"Yeah," Burke laughed.

He was driving back to their hotel in Springfield with Elle, Rossi, Garcia, and JJ. They were finished with their case and their business in St. Louis. Courtney Piercey's parents had come down from Chicago to get their daughter and he was sure that he had never seen two happier faces. Emily had a terrible headache but other than that she was fine, physically at least. Morgan had made the comment that she wouldn't show them any signs of weakness even if she was feeling vulnerable. He had used the exact phrase, "She's a trooper." They had left Brandon Thomas in the hands of the St. Louis agents after his confession. He would be escorted back to Chicago, where he would be formally charged, later in the week. Currently, Elle was asking about their drive from the farm to the field office.

"So you guys got the confession in the car and then went back to the field office so that he could write down the whole thing?" Elle asked with a slight chuckle.

Burke laughed loudly. "Yeah, pretty much."

"So he told you guys everything?" Garcia inquired.

"Mmm hmm," Burke nodded.

"Do you know what I found curious?" Rossi asked.

"What?" Burke replied interestedly.

"Where he abducted his victims."

"Oh yeah, Brandon had something to say about that as well," Burke started sadly. "Guess where Emily's favourite place in Chicago is?"

"The public city library," Garcia answered quickly.

"Yup, and her favourite sports team?"

"The Cubs," Rossi responded. "Wow, everything he did revolved around Emily."

--------------------

"Everything that he did was because of me!" Emily exclaimed in frustration as she rolled over onto her stomach and buried her face in a pillow. She felt absolutely terrible. She knew that she had absolutely no control over Brandon's feelings, but three women were dead for the simple reason that they looked like her, and she felt irrationally guilty because of it.

"This isn't your fault," Hotch said from his position at the foot of her bed. He had insisted on walking her to her hotel room, and when he saw how upset she was he had invited himself in.

"I know," she mumbled. "But I still feel terrible." She was being very candid with Hotch. There was something about their connection that caused her to always be brutally honest with him.

"You didn't do anything wrong."

"Yeah, I know, he hated me because I was myself," she scoffed.

"He's delusional," Hotch argued. "He convinced himself that Ryan was in love with him." He grabbed one of her bare feet, which were lying next to him, and brought it to rest on his thighs. "I heard Morgan suggest that we go out tonight," he said as he began to gently massage Emily's foot.

Emily raised her head in surprise and looked at the wall ahead of her questioningly. She felt Hotch's strong hands on her bandaged, right foot. She quickly rolled over onto her back and yanked her foot out of his grasp as she sat up. "Yeah, a night out isn't a bad idea," she replied with a fake smile.

"What's wrong? Is your ankle tender?" He asked worriedly.

She shook her head. "No, it's just that…"

She stopped and he picked up where she left off. "I gave you a foot massage after we were together in Chicago?"

"Yeah," she answered awkwardly.

He nodded in understanding. "I'm sorry about what happened," he said sincerely. This was the first time that they had really talked about what had happened between them. "I felt awful about everything afterwards. The last thing that was on my mind was hurting you and being unfaithful to my wife. I love her but I can't help how you make me feel. They're polar opposite emotions. I'm sorry," he repeated.

She gave him a small smile. It actually felt nice to hear an apology and an explanation from him. She knew that Aaron Hotchner was not the cheating type and she was certainly not up to playing the part of the mistress. "Different place and different time, huh?"

"Yeah, something like that," he replied smiling. They both sat in silence until he spoke again. "So I'll see you later tonight."

She nodded and leaned forward to kiss him softly on the cheek.

Meanwhile……

Reid took a deep breath before knocking on Elle's room door. When she opened the door and saw him, he could tell by the look on her face that she was still not pleased with him. "Can I come in?" He asked tentatively. She pulled the door wide open and motioned with her hand for him to enter. "So now that the case is over, can you actually talk to me?"

She laughed lightly. So he had noticed that she had only spoken to him in a professional capacity since they had argued. "It hurts," she told him quietly.

"What hurts?" He asked in confusion.

"That you don't want to tell the people that you work with everyday, the people that you're closest to, that you're dating me. It's almost like you're ashamed of me," she confessed. He looked at her with widened eyes and she laughed softly. "Don't use the puppy dog eyes," she said playfully.

He smiled to himself before speaking. "You couldn't be any further from the truth. I do want to tell them…it's just…that I guess…a part of me thought that they would think that I was playing way out of my league…or something…" He was now blushing from head to toe but he didn't care. "It's not like I have anything to offer a woman."

She walked up to him and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Now you couldn't be any further from the truth." She rested her head on his shoulder and began to nibble on the skin of his neck. "You're smart, and sweet, and sexy." She placed an open mouth kiss on his neck before saying, "Do you wanna go and break the news to people now?"

"Yeah," he smiled brightly. He placed his hand under her chin and tilted her face upwards so that he could give her a soft kiss. "Mmm," he hummed pleasantly and she laughed. "I love you."

"I love you too," she smiled back at him. "So, who first?"

Reid laughed, "Burke, definitely. He's been talking nonstop about you the whole time we've been here. He'll be weirdly proud of me."

Elle and Reid walked from room to room and told everyone that they've been seeing each other since the safe house. Burke sat on his bed in shock for a good five minutes before he gave Reid a wide grin and waggled his eyebrows. She had laughed at him while Reid had turned a bright crimson. Garcia had jumped up and down excitedly while exclaiming how happy she was for them and how she had known it all along. Morgan had a similar reaction as Burke, while Gideon and Hotch looked at Reid with unsurprised and all-knowing expressions. Rossi smiled and wished them good luck, and Emily reacted with honesty and sincerity, just as they had expected. And of course, Elle had already told JJ.

They had decided that they would go out tonight, all of them except for Rossi and Gideon, who politely declined the offer. They were staying in and eating late at the hotel restaurant.

Reid had just changed into a pair of black jeans and a blue, button-down shirt. He knew that Elle liked the casual look on him. He was offering his opinion on Burke's choice of dress shirt when there was a knock on the door. He answered the door and smiled pleasantly when he saw that it was Elle. He held the door open for her and went back to sit on the edge of his bed. His jaw dropped when he turned his gaze back on his girlfriend. Elle was wearing tight, hip hugging, blue jeans and an incredibly low cut, dark blue halter top.

She noticed his staring and smirked. "Do you like it?"

He smiled as she did a little spin for him. "I like it very much."

She smiled cheerfully and moved to straddle him. She wrapped her arms tightly around his neck and placed small kisses all over his face. "Don't worry," she whispered, "the ladies are taped in."

"Good," he whispered back. "I don't want anyone else seeing them." She giggled and he aggressively claimed her mouth.

Their intimate moment was interrupted by Burke. "Excuse me? Did you forget I was right here?"

Elle laughed and stood up. "Sorry."

"No, its okay, I was enjoying the show," Burke grinned mischievously. Reid glared at him and Burke could have sworn that he heard a low, protective growl. "Just kidding, man."

"Okay, I'll see you guys in a little while. I'm going to go to JJ's room," Elle said before she playfully waved at Reid and left their room.

Her departing statement triggered something in Reid's brain. Once Elle closed the door behind her, he turned to Burke with a wide grin. Burke laughed loudly. "Yeah, I know, your girlfriend is smokin' hot and you're rubbing it in my face."

"Well, that is true but that's not what I was going to say."

Burke looked at him confused. "Okay, so what were you going to say?"

"So, Elle's gone to JJ's room…" Reid started with a small laugh. He was having way too much fun teasing Burke.

"Yeah, so? Okay, get that shit ass grin off your face! What is it?"

Reid chuckled; he knew that Burke absolutely hated it when people dangled information in front of his face. "Welll, the other night, before we went to St. Louis, you were talking in your sleep again."

Burke sighed loudly. He hated that he was a sleep talker. It made him extremely insecure. "What did I say this time?" He asked fearfully.

"You were dreaming about JJ!" Reid couldn't contain his laughter any longer.

"I was not," Burke scoffed. "Stop making shit up!"

"I'm not," he continued to laugh. "Your exact words were," Reid cleared his throat dramatically, "'JJ, you're so soft', and you had this dreamy smile on your face."

Burke picked up his pillow and used it to violently smack Reid. "Shut the hell up! I can't control my dreams, genius," he stated in embarrassment. "So what? JJ's hot."

"You have a crush," Reid teased.

Burke hit him hard with the pillow again while the genius continued to laugh uncontrollably.

--------------------

Emily was getting ready to leave her hotel room, and meet the others, when her cell phone rang. She opened it quickly and answered. "Hello."

"_Em_?"

"Ryan?"

He laughed softly, "_Yeah. I wanted to see how you're doing. You were_…" He stopped and took a deep breath.

"Its okay, Morgan told me how you saved my life. Thank you," she said earnestly.

"_I would never let anything happen to you_." He took another deep breath. "_Are you okay_?"

"Yes, I am, thank you," she repeated.

"_I need to see you. I'm in Springfield right now_…"

"You're what?" She asked in shock.

"_In Springfield_," he answered quietly. "_I needed to see if you were okay for myself. I'm sorry_." He chuckled nervously.

"Its okay," she laughed. "Umm…we're actually going out tonight so you can meet me there if you want?"

"_Sure_," he replied excitedly.

"Okay." She gave him the name of the club that they were planning on going to before leaving her hotel room.

--------------------

At the club, Hotch, Emily, JJ, and Garcia were comfortably seated in a booth while Morgan, Burke, Reid, and Elle were on the dance floor.

Emily laughed, "I can't believe that Elle got Reid to dance."

"I don't think she had to work too hard to convince him," JJ replied smirking.

Garcia almost strained her eyes to see the door of the club and grinned when her suspicions were confirmed and the person of interest took a seat on a barstool. She leaned across the table towards Emily. "Hey Em, your model is here."

She looked at Garcia apprehensively before she turned her head towards the bar. She instantly felt nervous when she saw that Ryan was sitting on a stool drumming his hands on the mahogany wood of the bar. He was wearing a pair of blue jeans, a plain, black t-shirt, and sneakers. His soft, blonde hair was left uncovered by his usual cowboy hat.

She ducked her head and awkwardly tucked a strand of hair behind her ear as he glanced her way. "Hey, what's wrong?" Garcia asked concerned.

Emily shook her head. "Nothing. What does everyone want to drink?"

"I'll have a beer," JJ answered.

"Martini for me, and Elle said that she just wanted water, Burke a beer, and Reid wants a Coke," Garcia added, "I dunno about Morgan."

"He'll have a beer," Emily smiled. "What about you, Hotch?"

"Rum and Coke, please. Do you want me to help?" He asked considerately.

She shook her head as she got up out of the booth. "No thanks, I have it under control." She walked towards the bar and upon receiving a nod from the bartender placed her order. "I'll have four beers, one martini, one rum and Coke, a bottle of water and a Coke."

When Ryan heard the familiar, sultry voice he raised his head. "Hey," he said happily. "I just needed to see you."

"Well I can't say that I'm disappointed to see you either," she answered honestly as she stepped closer to him. The bartender placed all of the drinks in front of her and Ryan immediately reached for his wallet. "Ryan, you don't have to."

He shook off her protest. "No its okay, I got it. You guys believed me when those other agents wanted to arrest me for murder. The least I can do is buy some drinks." He placed the bills on the bar before he turned back towards her. "Here, I'll help you with these." He got up off of his stool and carried the majority of the drinks in his large hands.

Ryan followed Emily towards the booth that her friends occupied and carefully placed the beverages on the table. Garcia looked up at him and batted her eyelashes, "Thank you."

"No problem," he shrugged. He stood up straight and shoved his hands into his pockets; he was beginning to feel a little uncomfortable because of the subtle glare he was receiving from Aaron Hotchner.

"Would you like to join us?" JJ asked politely.

He shook his head of thick, blonde hair. "No thanks, I wouldn't want to intrude."

"We don't mind," Garcia smiled brightly.

Emily tentatively placed a hand on his arm. "Yes, you should join us."

"Well, okay," he gave in, trying not to sound too excited about being invited by his ex.

Emily slid in next to the two women, giving Ryan plenty of space beside Hotch. He was now sitting across from Emily and he gave her a pleasant smile. He couldn't just ignore the history between them. Even if he was viewing her for the very first time he would still be intrigued. She had long, dark, silky hair, deep, brown eyes, and creamy skin. She had strong, prominent facial features but a girlish smile. Tonight she wore jeans and a sleeveless, low cut, lilac top, much like she had on their very first date.

He was jolted out of his thoughts when she accidentally, or purposefully, brushed his hand as she reached for her drink. "Sorry," she apologized quietly.

"It's okay," he responded smiling.

Garcia smirked to herself as she noticed the sexual tension between the two former lovers. She gently nudged Emily in the abdomen before she leaned in and whispered, "If you want him, do something about it."

Emily sipped her beer as she looked at Hotch out of the corner of her eye. He had a look of simple indifference on his face as he tasted his drink. Her and Hotch had had closure today, hadn't they? She took a deep breath before she got up the courage to say, "Ryan, do you wanna dance?" He nodded excitedly before he hopped to his feet. He took her by the hand and helped her up out of her seat and led her onto the dance floor.

Emily laughed as they passed Elle and Reid. It was easy to tell that they were a young, infatuated couple. Reid's arms were wrapped tightly around Elle's waist and her arms were draped across his shoulders. She swayed to the music as she pressed against him and he followed her movements almost hypnotically.

When Ryan reached his desired spot on the floor, he pulled her in front of him and placed his hands on her hips. Her hands found his muscular biceps that were hardened from real labour and not vain workouts in front of a mirror. She looked up at him and recognized the intense look in his eyes.

"I forgot that you were a good dancer," she said, laughing awkwardly.

He smiled before he drew her close enough to identify the scent of her shampoo. "I don't want to let go. I miss you," he breathed in her ear, "seeing you and spending time with you just made me realize that. Do you miss me?" She nodded against his shoulder in reply. "I didn't think everything through when I called us off, and afterwards I was too proud to admit it. It's been a year and I still think about you."

She raised her head so that they made eye contact. She leaned in and kissed him softly. He reciprocated in full and wound a hand in her hair as his tongue worked its way into her mouth.

Meanwhile, Garcia and JJ watched the pair with great concentration. "Aww, they made up," Garcia declared happily as she watched them kiss passionately. She was a sucker for an epic romance.

"Whoa, it's really starting to get hot," JJ laughed as she watched the space between Ryan and Emily become nonexistent.

Hotch swallowed the last of his drink hard and resisted the urge to vomit. He could still feel jealous without feeling guilty. Couldn't he? He brought the empty glass down onto the table with excessive force. "I need another," he said quietly. He slid out of the booth and stood up in front of the two women who had smiles on their faces. "Do you two want anything?" They shook their heads in unison so he continued his trip to the bar.

He watched a woman that he had no claim to dance with a man that was either a pawn in their little chess game or an actual love interest, and he could not remember feeling more miserable.

**A/N: I know, I'm terrible for making Hotch so sad. I do apologize because I love him. Its just that a happy Hotch/Emily romance did not fit into this story. They want it to work but they both know that it won't. Don't hate me. Review instead! :)**


	21. Chapter 21

**A/N: Thanks to PisceanPal23, you're awesome. LOL. :) More character drama...**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds or any of its characters. Also, the chapter title is taken from The Strokes song "Reptilia" and I do not own that either.**

**Chapter 21 – The Night's Not Nearly over Yet**

Seeing Emily and Ryan get so passionate made Burke pop into JJ's mind once again. She looked around and since she and Garcia were the only ones sitting in the booth, she figured this would be as good a time as any to tell her best friend about her sudden crush.

"Garcia, I have something to tell you," she started nervously.

The pleasant blonde turned towards her with a worried look. "Jayge, what is it?"

"Okay, so you know when we had to stay at Ryan's, and we were talking and Burke came in to bring us pillows?"

She nodded, "Yeah, and he was all shirtless and it was really nice."

"Yeah," she began to blush. "Well since then I've been thinking about him…a lot…in very inappropriate ways while doing very inappropriate things…"

"Jayge, are you serious?" Garcia asked excitedly.

JJ nodded shyly, "Yeah, and I'm not sure what to do."

"Do you want honest advice?"

"Yeah, of course," JJ replied quickly.

"Then I think that you should kiss him," she said honestly. "To get it out of your system," she explained after seeing the very confused expression on her friend's face. "I mean if you want to continue then you have a problem, but it may utterly repulse you."

JJ thought about it for a moment before replying. "Okay, I will, but only because this advice came from you and your advice is usually spot on."

Garcia smiled as she slid out of the booth and allowed JJ to get to her feet. She pulled her thin, black turtleneck down so that it met the waistband of her blue jeans before she manoeuvred around the dance floor and caught Burke's attention. He was dancing, very closely, with an attractive, skinny brunette and she found herself growing a little jealous. She motioned him towards her and she smiled inwardly when he walked up to her without hesitation.

"What's up?" He asked curiously.

"We ordered you a beer, but I actually have to talk to you for a second," she stated calmly, trying to disguise how uncomfortable she was.

"Okay, sure," he replied slightly puzzled as he followed her down the hallway that led to the washrooms. She was very pleased to find it empty. "So what did you want…?"

His question was cut off by the much smaller, blonde woman grabbing him by the collar and pulling him down. She pressed her lips against his and kissed him deeply. When she finally pulled back, she cocked her head to the side and looked at him briefly before turning and walking away.

He stood there in shock for what felt like hours. He ran a hand through his hair as he licked her lip gloss off of his lips. "What was that?" He asked himself quietly.

JJ made her way back to the booth and sat down next to Garcia. "So did you do it?" She asked excitedly.

"Yeah."

"And?" Her eyes widened in anticipation.

"Meh," she shrugged, "I think that I'll stick to looking and the occasional daydream."

Garcia laughed lightly before taking a sip of her drink.

--------------------

"Are you ready to leave?" Ryan asked as him and Emily sat in the booth, both of them now sipping on sodas. His arm was wrapped around her shoulders and he had her pulled close.

"Yeah, just hold on a sec, Elle and Reid are coming over. I wanna see if they're leaving."

Hotch had been the first to leave. He had explained that it was because he wasn't feeling well, but she thought otherwise. JJ and Garcia had left together shortly after. And then Morgan and Burke walked back to the hotel together, even after receiving invitations from many women.

Elle walked over to the booth with Reid in tow. The young genius was flushed with tousled hair and the top two buttons on his dress shirt were undone to reveal pale skin. Elle was far more presentable as she had played a game of cat and mouse with her boyfriend all night. "Are you guys leaving?" She asked as she felt Reid place a hand in the small of her back.

"We were discussing it," Emily answered simply.

"Well, Reid and I actually have a hotel room across town." She gave Emily a small smile as the brunette had shot her a giant smirk. Reid had arranged it so that they could have more privacy. "So can you tell everybody that we'll see them tomorrow afternoon?"

Emily continued to smirk as she nodded. "Will do."

"Okay, cya later."

"Bye," Reid added distractedly before following his girlfriend to the door.

"They're an interesting couple," Ryan chuckled.

Emily smiled. "Yeah, they're cute."

"So you ready to go?" She nodded. "How far is your hotel from here?"

"Within walking distance."

"Well then I'll walk you," he suggested sweetly.

"Okay," she nodded before getting up out of the booth.

They left the bar and took the ten minute walk to the hotel. Ryan laughed quietly as they walked down the hallway. "I think it's pretty funny that you're the last one to get in. Emily Prentiss isn't exactly a party animal."

She laughed along with him before she stopped at room 165. "Oh, this is me."

"Who are your neighbours?"

"Well, that's JJ's room," she said as she pointed to the door on his left, "and Hotch is in the other. I can't figure out how I got a room in between them," she laughed awkwardly.

"Is there something going on between you and him or am I going crazy?" He asked nervously as he put his hands in his pockets.

"Who? Me and Hotch?" He nodded. "No, he's married." Well, that hadn't mattered before, she thought briefly before mentally slapping herself. She and Hotch had talked about that. They had resolved their issues.

"Oh, okay," he replied awkwardly. "Well I should probably go, I have a ten minute walk from the bar in the other direction, so now I have a twenty minute walk and it's getting late."

"So what about our 'dancing'?" She laughed at herself for using air quotes.

"I'm still in love with you, if that's what you're asking."

She hadn't expected him to be that blunt, and it caught her by surprise. She got her room key out of her pocket, turned the key in the lock, and pushed the door open. She pulled him into her room by grabbing him by the t-shirt.

Meanwhile……

Burke tossed and turned in his bed. He sighed heavily as he lay on his back and looked up at the ceiling. He turned his head to the side and saw that his roommate's bed was empty; he guessed that Reid was not coming back tonight. He sat up in bed and looked at the clock on the bedside table; it read one fourteen in the morning. It was late but he _needed_ to talk to her. He hopped out of bed, grabbed his room key, and shoved it into his pocket. He left his room and walked across the hallway to room 163. He knocked firmly and waited anxiously for her to answer.

JJ rolled onto her side; she could have sworn that she heard a knock on her door. She waited…there it was again. She forced herself up out of bed. She had actually been sleeping and she wondered who would be knocking on her door at almost half past one in the morning. She hoped that nothing was wrong.

She opened the door and looked curiously at her visitor. "Burke, what are you doing here?" She asked sleepily.

"Can I come in?" He asked impatiently.

"Umm…yeah I guess," she pulled the door wide open. He stepped inside, and she closed the door behind him. She looked down and blushed as the sleep wore off and she realized that she was wearing her pyjamas, a lilac tank top and white bottoms with puppies all over them. However embarrassing that fact was, she was incredibly happy that she didn't sleep naked right now.

"Why did you do that to me?" He finally spoke, "I can't stop thinking about it!"

"I'm sorry," she apologized sincerely, "I just needed to get the idea out of my head."

"And you didn't think that it would be wise to verbally present this idea to me first?" He looked incredibly attractive standing across from her. He was wearing a white wife beater and blue basketball shorts and his light brown hair was tousled.

"I'm sorry, I didn't think about you, I mean, I just thought that, ya know, you're Burke so it wouldn't really bother you," she explained awkwardly.

"Huh?" He stated as he repeatedly nodded. "Okay, I get how you would see that, but you're _JJ_."

She looked at him in confusion; he had used her own reasoning against her. "What?"

So Reid had been right about his little crush, but right now he didn't care, and he certainly was not thinking about Reid. "You're breathtakingly gorgeous, like old-time movie star gorgeous," he smiled, "but with a girl next door personality so you're really hard to stop thinking about, especially after you've been kissed." He stepped up to her and tentatively placed a hand on the side of her face. "Can I kiss _you_ this time?"

She glanced up at him but did not respond so he proceeded and leaned down to kiss her. When he pulled back she smiled to herself and she still had her eyes closed. "That was different then at the bar," she stated quietly.

He laughed lightly, "You caught me off guard, and I didn't have time to appropriately react. Was that more like you pictured it?"

She nodded and replied dreamily, "Uh huh."

He smiled as he grabbed the back of her thighs and hoisted her up into his arms.

--------------------

Elle giggled as she rolled off of Reid and onto the other side of the bed. They had been making out for close to a half an hour and she wasn't surprised by his patience but by his body's. "What is it?" He asked concerned as he shifted onto his side to face her.

"Nothing," she laughed, "I just needed a bit of air." She inched closer towards him and slipped a hand under the front of his shirt. "Did you have fun tonight?"

He nodded, "Yeah, I like dancing with you."

"Oh yeah?" She smirked.

He nodded again. "Although it's kind of a tease."

She smirked again, "Yes, yes it is." She leaned in and kissed him. "Why else would I want to dance?" He momentarily pouted before he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her close. He kissed along the neckline of her halter top and she ran her hands through his soft, brown hair. "Mmmm," she sighed contentedly. He worked his way upwards until he was kissing her neck.

"I really like that our relationship is now out in the open," he spoke against her skin.

"Me too," she agreed.

"I like telling people that we're a couple." He kissed her intensely on the mouth. "We're a couple," he declared enthusiastically.

"Yeah," she laughed. She sat up on the bed before she hopped to her feet. "I just realized that I don't have any clothes here."

He sat up and looked up at her smiling. "Who needs clothes?" As he spoke, he undid the last of the buttons on his dress shirt and slid his arms out of it.

"Who needs clothes?" She repeated with a large grin on her face.

He shrugged, "Yeah, who needs clothes?"

She sat back down on the bed and crawled up to him. "You know that we can keep this banter going forever, right?"

He nodded as his arms encircled her waist and he pulled her onto his lap. "Well, we have been making out while having a conversation for the past forty-five minutes."

"Yeah, no more talking," she smirked as she leaned forward and kissed him.

--------------------

"Emily," Ryan whispered her name in her ear. She was sleeping peacefully on her side with her back pressed against his chest. The hand that been resting on her hip was now threading through her dark locks. He wanted to watch her sleep. He loved seeing her look so content, but a part of him wanted to have her awake so that he could talk to her. The primal part of him, the one that was emphasizing the fact that they hadn't been together in a year, wanted her awake so that he could make love to her again. "Em."

She stirred and mumbled something and he smiled. Sometimes she did talk in her sleep. But from what he had read, a lot of FBI agents had the same complaint. He leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. "Beautiful, wake up."

Her eyes fluttered open and she stared at him curiously. "Why are you waking me?"

He laughed lightly; she was not a morning person. "Cuz I wanted to see your gorgeous eyes looking up at me."

An eyebrow rose in scepticism. "What do you want?" Ryan was sweet, but he was never that sickeningly sweet unless, of course, he wanted something.

"Nothing," he laughed, "I swear…okay well maybe something…"

She rolled over so that they were face to face. "Okay, what is it?"

"I want to marry you."

"No, you don't," she replied quickly.

"Why not?" He asked confused.

"Because I have a demanding, dangerous job, I have issues with my parents, I'm involuntarily part of the political world, I'm not religious, I drink, smoke, and swear, I can't cook, and I'm not a morning person." He laughed lightly as he gently brushed her cheek. "You want to live on your farm with two kids that you can bring to church every Sunday, a dog, and a wife who cooks and cleans, and I can't give those things to you."

He placed a hand on the side of her face and responded by kissing her intensely. "If I can't have them with you then I don't want them." He kissed her again. "I just want you. We'll resume this conversation in full later," he laughed lightly. She forgot her main argument when he climbed on top of her and began kissing down her neck.

**A/N: So, there is a missing scene that accompanies this chapter that I will place in Uncut if you guys want it. So please tell me and I will post it tomorrow. I'm sure that you guys can guess what the missing scene entails (Emily/Ryan, JJ/Burke, and a jealous Hotch). So review and tell me what you think! Please! :)**

**Also, I've been spending a fair amount of time on the Twilight pages of fanfiction and I've noticed that they have a lot of contests and correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that we have them over here and I think that they would be fun. :) So let me know if you're intrigued by the idea of having Criminal Minds contests and maybe we can cook up something crazy and fun. I'll also post this idea in the discussion forum. :)**


	22. Chapter 22

**A/N: Thanks to PisceanPal23 and BeingDazzledByEdward! :)**

**Disclaimer: Same as always.**

**Chapter 22 – Love Birds**

Burke awoke when the sun began to seep through the hotel room curtains. He opened his eyes and saw that JJ was asleep on his shoulder with her arm draped across his chest. "Jen," he called softly. At some point during the night, he had called her Jen instead of JJ and she hadn't corrected him, so he had decided to use it regularly. He liked it because it was something that nobody else called her.

He ruffled her hair and she woke with a start. "Hey! What the…?" She stopped midsentence and buried her head in the crook of his neck. "It's early and we don't have to work, I wanna sleep in," she whined.

He laughed lightly. She was too cute. "You can sleep in, but I should sneak back into my room."

"Oh, okay," she replied sadly.

"I'll see you at breakfast." She rolled over onto her back and he got up out of the bed. He saw a smirk touch her lips for a fraction of a second. He smiled confidently, "Like what you see?"

"Maybe," she teased as she watched him step into his shorts and pull his wife beater over his head. "You're not hard on the eyes."

"Well neither are you," he smiled. He kissed her quickly on the forehead before leaving.

--------------------

Hotch awoke, dressed, and immediately left his hotel room. He assumed that Ryan had already left, so he was intent on taking Emily to breakfast and having another private conversation with her. He knocked steadily on her door and waited impatiently for her to answer.

When somebody finally answered the door it wasn't Emily at all. Ryan was standing in front of him with just a towel wrapped around his hips. His chest and hair were still wet and he had a bright smile on his face. "Good morning."

"Morning," Hotch replied unenthusiastically. "Is Emily out?"

He laughed awkwardly and it was then that Hotch heard the running water in the background. "Em's in the shower but I can tell her that you stopped by."

"No, that's not necessary, I just wanted to see if she was ready for breakfast," he explained. He quickly turned and walked away.

Ryan shook his head in confusion before he closed the hotel room door. He turned around to see Emily walking out of the bathroom in a robe. "Who was that?" She asked curiously.

"A cranky Agent Hotchner," he answered.

"Really?" She replied in surprise. "What did he want?"

"He wanted to see if you were ready for breakfast. He seemed seriously pissed," he stated uneasily.

Emily laughed, "He's Hotch, he kind of always seems that way."

He walked towards her and wrapped his arms around her waist. "Em, you know that I'm a jealous guy."

She gave him a small smile as she fully understood the purpose of his statement. "There's nothing going on between Hotch and I. We're friends," she told him reassuringly.

"Sure?" He asked persistently.

She nodded, "I'm sure."

He leaned down and covered her mouth with his own. "Okay, I trust you," he said quietly.

She smiled, "Get dressed so we can go down for breakfast."

"Okay." He towel dried his hair and then changed back into the clothes he had worn the previous night.

She had just pulled on a pair of jeans when he came up behind her and lifted her up off of the ground. "Just because you're ready, doesn't mean that I am," she laughed. She was still missing a shirt. He kissed her on the cheek before he planted her back on her feet. "Thank you." She grabbed a wife beater out of her suitcase and pulled it over her head. "Okay now I'm ready."

She made sure that she had her room key before they left the room and made their way down to the dining room. Emily smiled as she saw Hotch, Rossi, Garcia, JJ, Morgan, Burke, and Gideon sitting at a table. She and Ryan walked towards the long table that the food was laid out on and got their breakfast before heading to the table occupied by her friends.

"Good morning," Garcia greeted them with a devilish smirk on her face. None of them were overly surprised to see Ryan with her, but they hadn't known that he had spent the night.

Hotch's attention was immediately drawn to the brunette. She was wearing a pair of blue jeans and a red wife beater. Her shoulder length hair was wet and because of that it was curling. His eyes, however, fell on the arm that was wrapped around the back of her chair and the hand that was busy caressing her bare arm. He also noticed that her left hand disappeared as she took a sip of her coffee. It was probably on Ryan's knee.

"Hey, where are Elle and Reid?" Morgan asked curiously.

"Oh we were talking to them last night," Emily answered, "they'll be back this afternoon, they're across town."

Morgan chuckled and let out a short whistle. "Well then, they must have seriously wanted some privacy."

JJ held back her laughter as she thought about the privacy, or rather lack there of, that hotel walls provided. Her and Burke had firsthand experience after having to listen to Ryan and Emily. But she couldn't stop herself from smiling as she watched Ryan take one of Emily's hands and kiss it softly. A small part of her hoped that eventually she and Burke would graduate to public displays of affection. "He's so sweet," she whispered to Garcia who was sitting on her right.

Hotch overheard the young, blonde woman and heard himself ask, "So Ryan, when are you going back to Missouri?" before his brain even processed the thought.

"I don't know," he answered honestly while he was looking at Emily. "I'll have to see about some things." He hoped that Emily understood what he was hinting at. He had confessed that he wanted to marry her last night, for the second time, and he needed a real yes or no answer from her before he could think about returning home.

Meanwhile……

"That was such a great breakfast!" Elle called out from the bathroom. She was washing her face while Reid was still lying on the bed. They had ordered breakfast and had eaten it in bed and this trip to the bathroom was only the second time that Reid had let her out of the bed this morning. The first had been when she had convinced him that she really needed to pee. She knew that Reid was being reluctant to let her out of his grasp because they were going their separate ways tonight. It saddened her as well.

"Yeah, it was a good breakfast," he answered. She smiled when she felt his arms wrap around her waist. She raised her head and saw his smiling reflection in the mirror. "Do you know that breakfast is my favourite meal?"

"No, I didn't. Why is it your favourite?" She asked grinning as she watched his reflection begin to nibble at her neck.

"Because almost every Saturday and Sunday morning I get to have breakfast with you."

"Reid," she giggled.

"Well, for our visits we usually have one lunch together and one dinner but we always have two breakfasts." He spun her around quickly and kissed her on the mouth. "I just want to make you happy," he stated sweetly.

She smiled and cupped his cheek in her hand. "You do."

"I'm glad," he smiled happily before kissing her again. "Now strip," he ordered in a deep, husky voice.

"Whoa, change in demeanour," she laughed loudly.

"Take off your clothes," he spoke slowly and pronounced each syllable perfectly.

She smiled mischievously; he knew that she could not resist this side of him. She hurriedly pulled his dress shirt over her head. She was naked underneath.

**A/N: Elle/Reid missing scene in Uncut!! Check it out and review!!! :) We're nearing the end of this story, only one chapter left.**


	23. Chapter 23

**Disclaimer: Same as always.**

**Chapter 23 – Goodbye Again**

Reid observed the lazy smile on Burke's face as they packed their things. Everyone was now in their rooms preparing to leave. All of their flights were departing around seven o'clock and Morgan and Emily were driving back to Chicago. "What are you so happy about?" He asked the older man laughingly. He already knew why he, himself, was smiling. He had made love to his gorgeous girlfriend all day; however he had no idea why Burke was smiling.

"I'm just glad that we're done with this case and leaving the Midwest," he lied. He wasn't about to tell Reid that he spent the night with JJ, especially that he loved every second of it. Elle and Reid's relationship was fine, they worked on opposite sides of the country, but inter-unit fraternization was highly frowned upon. "I heard that Gideon is planning on giving us a week off, so I'm excited for that."

"Really?" Reid exclaimed excitedly. "Maybe I can visit Elle?"

Burke chuckled softly before he zippered up his ready bag and threw it over his shoulder. "You ready to go down to the lobby?"

Reid nodded and picked his own bag up off of the bed. They grabbed their room keys and pulled the door to on their way out.

Meanwhile……

Emily had just finished packing when there was a knock on her door. She pulled the door open and gave her visitor a small smile. "Hey Hotch."

"Hey," he responded quietly as he stepped into her room and closed the door behind him. "I wanted to say goodbye in private."

"Okay," she replied awkwardly as she sat down on the edge of the bed.

He sat down beside her and took a deep breath. "I want to be honest with you and say that I felt jealous when I saw you with Ryan this morning."

She nodded to herself. "Okay…so…" She was a little confused. She thought that she and Hotch had already been over all of this.

"And I just want to remind you that you and Ryan aren't married now for a reason."

"That's true," she agreed. She realized that Hotch was right. Ryan had broken off their engagement for a reason and she had yet to ask him what that reason was. She shifted uncomfortably and she knew that Hotch was profiling her. She sighed heavily, "We haven't talked about that yet." She had told Ryan that she needed time to think over his second proposal, so he had gone back to his own hotel. He was going to visit her in Chicago when she got back. She had a lot to think about.

Hotch sensed that their conversation was over, so he got to his feet. "Friends?" He asked questioningly.

She smiled pleasantly, "Friends."

They hugged quickly and he moved towards the door. "Keep in touch?" He winced. Why was he being insecure and asking for her permission instead of stating what he wanted?

Luckily for him, she wanted the same things. "Yeah, we'll keep in touch."

He smiled, "Bye Emily.

As he left, they both wondered if them being "friends" and "keeping in touch" was the best idea. Hotch knew that he loved Haley, and Emily was sure that she loved Ryan but they were almost magnetically drawn to each other.

--------------------

Everyone was in the lobby with their bags. They had all checked out of their rooms and they were ready to leave. Last time, their departing point had been an airport, this time it was a hotel lobby. The BAU, Elle, and Rossi were all taking separate vehicles to the airport and Morgan and Emily were driving.

They had managed to divide themselves up into groups, just like last time, except that the combinations were different. The group dynamic had changed slightly and they all took notice. Emily and Hotch were being friendly towards each other, but they didn't talk more than necessary, at least not in public. Elle and Reid were standing side by side; they all had a feeling that that would be a constant from now on. Morgan and Garcia were laughing and joking, but they had the addition of Burke. JJ was talking to Gideon and Hotch about the possible vacation time and Emily was asking Rossi about his retirement plans.

When it came time to say goodbye, they hugged and shook hands before the final private conversations began.

"Check your pocket," Burke whispered quickly to JJ.

She looked at him in confusion as he walked away from her and towards Morgan. She put both of her hands in the pockets of her jacket anyway and was surprised when she felt a small piece of paper. She pulled it out and discreetly unfolded it. It was a message from Burke, addressed to Jen. She smiled to herself at the use of the nickname. It was a little note saying that he had loved the time that they had spent together and that he wanted to do it again. At the end was his address in Washington D.C. She smiled again before she put the note back in her pocket. She would need that when they got back to D.C.

Gideon watched the rest of his team interact as he stood next to Rossi. "So, back to Quantico?" Rossi asked.

He nodded. "Yeah, and you?"

"I'm going to my cabin in Virginia."

"So when are you coming back to the BAU?" Gideon asked bluntly. Rossi smirked at him but didn't answer his question. Gideon chuckled, "I'll be expecting your call." Rossi continued to grin as he waved farewell and exited the hotel.

Meanwhile……

Reid kissed Elle quickly on the lips three times and she giggled. "I'll call you and then I'll tell you when I'm going to come and visit," Reid promised as he wrapped his arms tightly around her waist.

"Okay," she nodded as she rested her head against his shoulder. "Ya know that this is the worst part about a long distance relationship."

"Yeah, it is," he agreed sadly. "But seeing each other again is the best part."

She looked up at him and saw that he was smiling brightly. "I hate how much of an optimist you are," she joked.

"No, you love it," he teased.

She laughed and then took a deep breath. "Okay, I'm going to get ready to go now, I've already said goodbye to everyone else."

"Okay," he pouted. He kissed her softly. "I love you."

She smiled, "Love you too."

"See ya soon." He smiled bravely as Elle walked out of the hotel. He really needed to do something about the fact that they lived on opposite sides of the country. He walked towards Garcia, Morgan, and Burke and smiled again.

"Aww, I hate goodbyes, they suck," Garcia frowned.

Morgan laughed. "It's okay, baby girl." Garcia hugged him tightly and he laughed. "I have this effect on women," he stated while looking at Burke. He actually had a lot in common with the profiler and he knew that if they lived in the same city they would be close friends.

"Okay, everybody ready?" They heard Hotch call out. They all turned their heads and saw that Hotch and Gideon both had their bags in their hands, ready to leave. Morgan squeezed Garcia and kissed her on the top of the head. "I'll call you," he whispered softly.

"You better," she warned, "you don't want me mad at you." He laughed and kissed her affectionately one last time before letting her go. Garcia rushed over to Emily and hugged her again. Emily laughed in surprise but embraced the emotional blonde.

Gideon walked over to Morgan and respectfully shook his hand. "Pleasure to work with you again, Agent Morgan."

"The pleasure was all mine."

"I hear that they're looking to add another field agent to the BAU," Gideon stated suggestively.

"Really?" Morgan asked as his eyes widened.

"Your application is being considered," Gideon grinned. Morgan's smile was bright and wide as he shook Gideon's hand again. "I'll call you personally."

"Can't wait," Morgan replied sincerely.

"Okay, let's go!" Gideon walked towards the front of the lobby where Hotch and JJ were standing. Burke, Reid, and Garcia left Emily and followed them out the door.

Once everyone was out of sight, Morgan wrapped his arm around Emily's shoulders. "Garcia's right, goodbyes suck."

Emily laughed at him. "Yeah, they do," she agreed. "But I love working with those people."

"Yeah, me too." Morgan paused, "So what do you say girl, ready to drive back to Chicago?"

"Sure," Emily nodded.

"I'm driving!" Morgan said quickly.

He laughed as Emily groaned loudly. "Okay, fine, but I get to pick the music."

It was Morgan's turn to groan. "Oh, come on! The part of this trip that I was looking forward to the most was annoying you with my music for an hour and a half."

Emily laughed triumphantly. "Come on, let's go."

And with that, Morgan and Emily were the last to leave the hotel.

**The End**

**A/N: So there you have it. I gave Morgan the promotion because as we know Morgan was in the BAU before Elle and Emily, so I wanted to stay true to the show's order. Thanks to everyone and anyone who has read and reviewed this story. It means a lot to me. If you enjoyed it at all then review and give me your thoughts. I really want to hear final comments and I hope that I didn't ruin it with the ending. LOL. And give me your opinion on whether or not you think that this held up to What If?! I have other stories out there so check them out! Thanks! :)**


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